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Sales presentations: templates, examples and ideas on how to present like a pro

A good sales presentation is more than a simple pitch, a demo or a list of facts and figures. Done well, at the right time in your sales process , it’s a tool for getting your prospects’ attention, drumming up excitement and moving prospects toward a buying decision.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to use the power of storytelling to drive decision-making and close more deals. We’ll also cover the fundamental elements of an effective sales presentation strategy, what to include in your sales decks and practical ideas on how to deliver them.

What is a sales presentation?

A sales presentation is a live meeting where your team showcases your product or service and why it’s the best option for your prospect.

Although the terminology differs from company to company, a sales presentation is not always the same as a sales pitch.

A sales pitch is what your sales professionals do all day long, on the phone, over Zoom or in person with clients.

A sales presentation (although it’s still a sales pitch) is a point-in-time event that usually happens when your sales team is trying to close a more lucrative deal. It’s not a simple phone call, as it often involves a meeting and a demo.

Because you’re likely presenting to a group of senior decision-makers and executives, sales presentations require ample prep time and coordination across multiple team members.

Key takeaways from this sales presentations article

Deliver effective presentations: Make your sales presentations compelling with storytelling, effective slide decks, tailored content and strong delivery techniques. Benefits of great presentations: Sales presentations grab attention, excite prospects and drive decision-making, helping close more deals by showcasing your product’s value. Pipedrive’s tools, including customizable sales dashboards and Smart Docs , help you create professional, tailored presentations that enhance your sales strategy. Try Pipedrive free for 14 days .

How (and why) to use storytelling in your sales presentation

Use stories in your presentations to help people remember and relate to your brand.

Statistics, facts and figures can help when you’re trying to persuade a prospect to become a customer, but they’re more impactful if you can frame them with a memorable story.

For example, tell a story about a customer who faced the same challenges as your prospect and supplement it with powerful data, they are more likely to listen and want to know more.

Human beings have a deep relationship with storytelling. Stories move, teach and, in a sales context, persuade audiences.

Chip Heath, a Stanford professor and the co-author of Made to Stick , demonstrates the importance of storytelling by doing an exercise with his students. He divides them into groups and asks them to deliver a one-minute persuasive pitch based on data he’s just shown them.

After the pitches are delivered, he asks the class to jot down everything they remember about them. Although most students use stats rather than stories, 63% remember the stories, while only 5% remember an individual data point .

The stickiness of stories makes them a useful tool for developing a sales presentation outline. They help prospects understand and remember the key points of the presentation and your product.

Thomas Dredge Sales Manager, Particular Audience

Start with a problem (and a deadline)

Your presentation is about the solution you’re offering your prospects, but it shouldn’t start with that solution.

Instead, lead with the problem your solution was designed to solve.

“ Value selling is key,” says Bradley Davies, business development at Cognism . “It is important to understand your buyer and tailor their journey to what you can do for them.

“First, you need to understand what is motivating them to have a discussion, which allows you to identify their pains and present how your offering solves their pains. Everything presented to a prospect should be based on the value for them specifically.”

You might choose to tell a story that positions your product as the hero, helping the customer vanquish a villain: their pain point.

Your story should be tailored to the pain points of the prospects in the room. For example, a change to their business, industry or the technology they use.

“If an element of your offering is not relevant, then don't distract them from the important features. It will keep them engaged and help to build their user story,” adds Bradley.

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Digging deep to determine customer pain points and make the sale

Create a sense of urgency around your product: It’s a solution to their problem, but if they don’t act now, they could miss an opportunity. Tell a story about what might happen if your prospect doesn’t change, framing the consequences of inaction.

Focus on outcomes

You’ve outlined the problem and, if you’re doing your job, your audience is nodding along. Now it’s time to start talking about the solution.

However, that doesn’t mean you should launch into the features and benefits of your product just yet.

Rather than presenting your product, a good sales presentation draws a picture of what life could look like for a customer once they start doing things differently. How will their workload or productivity improve? What will they be able to do with additional time and resources? How will they reduce spending and increase revenue?

From there, introduce your solution and the features that can make this brave new world possible. Do this in a few ways:

Position your features against the old way of doing things

Present those features as “superpowers” that will solve your prospect’s problems

Compare those features to competitors’ features

Quantify the value your features bring vs. the cost of doing nothing

Use a combination of some or all of the above

Creating a winning sales presentation slide deck

Most sales presentations include a slide deck to deliver facts, case studies and statistics that convey the value of your solution.

Create your sales pitch deck in an application like PowerPoint or Google slides to ensure your presentation is visible to everyone in the room (or in a virtual setting).

The best sales decks have a few key elements:

A great cover image or opening slide. Like the story you open your presentation with, your cover slide should grab your audience’s attention.

Data and key points . Charts, graphs, infographics, quotes and other information back up your presentation. Your slides should support your presentation by visualizing data, not repeating what you’re saying. You can get metrics from third-party sources or (if appropriate) from your own sales dashboard .

Testimonials and case studies from other customers. Quotes and success stories from or information about other customers, preferably in the same industry as your prospects, will act as social proof and go a long way to backing up your claims.

Competitive context. In all likelihood, your product isn’t the only one a potential customer is evaluating. Savvy sales professionals take the opportunity to proactively communicate how their product stacks up to their competitors’ and anticipate objections.

Customized content. While it might seem tempting to use the same content for every presentation, you should personalize your presentation for each meeting. You might want to use your prospect’s brand colors, find data specific to their market or industry, or reference an earlier exchange. You can find ready-to-use customizable sales decks through a graphic design app, such as Canva.

A glimpse into next steps. Give your prospects an understanding of what new customer onboarding looks like with a slide that includes a direct call to action offering next steps. For some companies, the training and customer support experience can be a value proposition in and of itself.

A note about text in your sales deck : Keep the slides simple and light on text. Your prospects don’t want to look at a wall of words to read. According to data from Venngage , 84% of presenters use visual data in their presentations – and for good reason: You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with text as they listen to you, look at your sales deck and watch the demo.

When you do include text, ensure you use a font (and font size) that can be easily read by everyone sitting in on your presentation.

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What else to bring to your sales presentation

Now that we’ve discussed the story elements of a sales presentation and your slide deck, what else should you bring to the meeting?

Most sales presentations are in-person affairs and include visual elements like a sales deck, handouts or even an in-person demonstration of the physical product. Here are a few things to think about including in your pitch.

13 examples of sales collateral you need to drive revenue

The product.

Nothing sells a product like seeing it in action.

Take Scrub Daddy, a sponge that changes shape depending on the heat of the water. When Aaron Krause, Scrub Daddy’s founder and inventor, presented the product on Shark Tank in 2012 , he demonstrated the sponge cleaning dirty kitchenware and greasy countertops. He also used bowls of water and two 10-pound weights to show the sponge’s amazing morphic abilities.

The tactic paid off: Scrub Daddy partnered with Lori Greiner for $200,000, in return for 20% equity in the business and is now considered one of Shark Tank’s most successful products.

Not all products are easy to demo, so you may have to improvise.

With a physical product, think of the perfect environment for a demo. What would show the product at its best?

With a digital product, make sure you have the technology on hand to show what your product can do (and check beforehand that the tech works). If it’s a mobile app, have your prospects download it. If it’s a platform, consider producing recorded or interactive product demos that can be embedded in your sales presentation.

For items that are too big to be brought in or which are location-specific, you may have to rely on a video as part of the presentation.

7 steps to putting together a brilliant sales demo

Leave behinds.

Depending on the nature of your solution, you may want to have materials you can leave with the prospects in the room.

This can be as simple as contact information or sales literature you pass out at the end of the presentation. It can also be something that’s part of the presentation, like a QR code that allows them to download the demo on their phones. Whatever format you choose, make sure the material is concise and to the point.

Tailoring your sales presentation to speak to your audience

Once you develop a strong sales deck template, it’s tempting to use it over and over with your target audience. Remember, personalization is essential in sales.

During lead generation , prospecting and sales calls, you know that prospects are more interested in buying if your pitches are tailored to them. It’s the same with your sales presentations, especially if you have an unusual prospect.

Let’s say your product is a CRM that’s normally used by sales organizations, but a human resources department is interested in using it to create a recruiting pipeline.

You wouldn’t use a sales deck with sales-related examples to sell it during the presentation.

Instead, you’d research talent acquisition challenges, ask your product department to create a template or a demo aimed at recruiting and build your sales deck accordingly.

Different industries have unique challenges and opportunities. It’s your responsibility to tailor your value proposition and key bullet points accordingly.

“To craft the perfect sales presentation pitch,” advises Danny Hayward, Sales Manager at Unruly , “ensure you take care of these three things:

Ask the right questions beforehand to understand the needs of the client, especially their flaws

Learn your product inside and out

Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse again

Danny Hayward Sales Manager, Unruly

How to nail your sales presentation delivery

Here are a few tried and true sales presentation techniques to make sure you close the deal.

Whether you’re presenting solo or as part of a team, it’s important to plan in advance. Follow these sales presentation tips for preparation.

Practice, practice, practice . You’ll need to get the timing right, especially if your presentation has a lot of moving parts. Go through it to make sure your timing works, so that you can nail the meeting itself.

Make sure everything works . You don’t want to go into a meeting with a faulty PowerPoint presentation or a broken sample – or find out there is no whiteboard when one is integral to your demonstration. Do your best to make sure everything goes to plan.

Decide on everyone’s roles . This one is just for those presenting as a team. Will different sales reps speak through each section? Will one rep talk while the others handle the sales deck and demo? Decide who will do and say what ahead of time.

Know your attendees. Make sure you know who from the prospect company will be in the meeting, their titles and the roles they each play in the buying process. Conducting light social media research can also clue you into attendees’ past experiences or alma maters (information that can fuel pre-presentation small talk and forge closer connections with your audience).

Practice confident body language

Presentations usually happen in person, which is why you need to practice strong body language. You want to look relaxed and confident (even if you’re shaking in your shoes).

Here are some ways you can improve your body language:

Eye contact . Make and maintain eye contact, even in virtual meetings. This shows people you’re interested in them and invested in what they have to say.

Stand up straight . Pull your shoulders back and straighten your spine; fixing your posture is an easy way to convey confidence. You’ll also feel better if you’re not hunched over.

Chin up. It’s hard when you’re in front of people, but don’t look at the floor or your shoes. Face straight ahead and make eye contact (or look at the back wall rather than the floor.)

Have a firm handshake. Some people judge others by their handshakes. Offer a firm handshake to make a good first impression.

Engage your audience

Presentations can span 30 to 60 minutes or more, so you need to be able to hold your prospects’ attention. There are a number of ways to keep everyone interested:

1. Understand your audience’s attention span

The beginning and the end of your presentation are the most memorable, so that’s where you want to use your strongest material.

Rather than leading with your product’s features, use the first few minutes of a presentation to briefly introduce yourself, and share the compelling story we mentioned earlier. If your demo itself is compelling, lead with that.

Then talk about product features and pricing. Your prospects might have already researched it or can look it up afterward, so it’s fine that it’s occupying real estate in the middle of the presentation.

Lastly, finish strong. Return to your story, sharing how your product solved an important problem. Close with confidence, and open the floor for questions.

2. Be funny

Humor can be tricky, so if you’re not comfortable making jokes, don’t force it. If, however, humor is part of your brand voice and you think it will be well-received by your audience, go for it. Humor can be a good way to connect with prospects, make your presentation memorable and relax everyone in the room.

3. Use a little showmanship

The best thing about a sales presentation is that it lets you show off your product. Unlike a pitch, a presentation lets you pull out the stops, make a splash and showcase your solution.

Use this to your advantage and be as memorable as you possibly can.

Sophie Cameron Business Development Representative, CAKE

What to do after the sales presentation to close the deal

The sales cycle isn’t over when the sales presentation ends. Here are some tips on how to wrap up loose ends and close the deal.

Take questions

Encourage questions to show prospects you care about their experience.

Sometimes prospects may want a question answered right in the middle of a presentation. Interactivity is a great sign of engagement. If that happens, stop the presentation and take their questions head-on to show you’re listening and validate their thoughts.

Other times they may sit silently waiting for you to give them all the information they need.

In either case, proactively ask for questions once you’ve ended your presentation. Encourage them to share their concerns. This is a consultative selling approach that works to build a relationship with your prospects.

By the end of your sales pitch, your prospect should be ready to come along with you and start your business relationship.

Outline the next steps of the process. The first could be offering a trial of your product, scheduling a follow-up meeting or sending over a proposal.

Whatever the steps, make sure they’re clearly defined. If you don’t hear from the prospect soon after the proposal, check back in with a follow-up email or call.

How to write a response-worthy follow-up email (with 15 templates)

Great sales presentation examples (and why they worked)

Here are some sales pitch examples you can use to inform your next sales presentation; these examples range from great sales decks to presentations and we’ll explain why they worked so well.

The successful demo

Stephen Conway of vegan chocolate brand Pure Heavenly opened his elevator pitch on the UK’s Dragons’ Den in 2019 by handing out samples of his chocolate. The product, paired with Stephen’s story about wanting to create an allergen-free treat that his young daughters could enjoy, led to three offers.

Why it worked: Conway knew the strength of his product and packaged it in a personal story, betting (correctly) that it would sell itself.

The data-driven presentation

Lunchbox is a restaurant technology company that specializes in online ordering, customer loyalty and guest engagement software. The sales deck the company used to raise its $50 million Series B in 2022 relied on bold visuals and graphs to illustrate its market opportunity, ARR history and competitive differentiators.

Why it worked: The deck tells two stories, one about the company itself and another about the way consumer dining habits have changed in the wake of COVID-19. Lunchbox used data to show how it met the industry’s new pain points for both itself and other companies.

Sales data: How to analyze sales data and a sample Excel spreadsheet

The presenters with overwhelming confidence

When Brian and Michael Speciale went on Shark Tank in 2017 to pitch their product, The Original Comfy, they had very little – no numbers or inventory, just a prototype of a big fleece blanket/hoodie and video of that hoodie being worn everywhere from the couch to the beach. What they did have was a good product and confidence in that product. Their presentation earned them an offer of $50,000 for 30% from Barbara Corcoran.

Why it worked: Corcoran says she bought in because the Speciale brothers had a good idea, the guts to present it and knew they had to strike while the iron was hot. While you probably should be more prepared for your own sales presentation, the Original Comfy story shows just how important confidence is in a sales presentation.

Begin your sales presentation by capturing your audience’s attention and establishing a solid foundation for the rest of your presentation. Here are some steps to consider:

Greet and introduce yourself

Establish rapport

State the purpose and agenda

Address the pain points

Present a compelling hook

Outline the benefits

Establish credibility

Set expectations

Remember to maintain a confident and enthusiastic demeanor throughout your presentation.

The ideal length of a sales presentation can vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the product or service, the audience’s attention span and the context in which the presentation is being delivered. However, keeping a sales presentation concise, focused and within the timeframe is generally recommended.

The conclusion of a sales presentation is a significant opportunity to leave a lasting impression and inspire action from your audience. Here are a few steps you should take to end your presentation effectively.

Include a call to action

Summarize key points

Showcase success stories

Open the floor to questions

Offer additional resources

Here’s an example of how to end your presentation:

“To quickly recap, we’ve covered these key points today: [Summarize the main features and benefits briefly].

“Now, let’s revisit our success stories. Our clients, like [Client A] and [Client B], achieved [mention their specific results]. These successes demonstrate how our product/service can deliver tangible benefits for your business.

“I’d be happy to address any questions or concerns you may have. Please feel free to ask about anything related to our offering, implementation process or pricing.

“Before we finish, I’d like to encourage you to take the next step. Schedule a demo, request a trial or start a conversation with our team. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the advantages firsthand.

“Lastly, we have additional resources available, such as case studies and whitepapers, to provide you with more insights. Feel free to reach out to our team for any further assistance.

“Thank you all for your time and consideration today.”

Final thoughts

It can be tempting to play it safe with a sales presentation by keeping it to a sales deck and a speech – but a sales presentation should be a show-stopper.

The best sales presentation tells your customer’s story, validates with data, offers a demo and more. It’s a major undertaking that shows the strength of your product. Done well, it keeps your prospects engaged and will make them want to do business with you.

Show customers how your product can push their business forward (or better yet, how your product can make them the superhero) and you’ll have a winning sales presentation that sparks your customer’s interest and drives revenue.

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7 Sales Presentation Examples for Successful Pitches

A successful sales presentation can significantly influence a potential client’s decision-making process. It needs to be engaging, informative, and persuasive.

This guide explores the components of an effective sales presentation, and best practices for creating one, and provides seven exemplary sales presentation templates from various sources.

What Is a Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation is a strategic dialogue designed to persuade a potential client or customer to purchase a product or service. It typically involves a detailed explanation of the product’s features, benefits, and potential return on investment.

What Is Included in a Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation typically includes sections on:

• Introduction : Brief introduction of the company and the presenter.
• Customer Needs : Identification of the client’s needs and how they align with the product or service.
• Product/Service Details : Detailed information about the product or service, highlighting unique selling points.
• Success Stories : Real-life examples or case studies demonstrating the value of the product or service.
• Pricing and Packages : Overview of pricing options and any customizable packages.
• Call to Action : Strong conclusion that prompts the audience to act or decide.

Sales Presentation Best Practices

Creating an effective sales presentation involves several best practices:

• Tailor Your Message : Customize the presentation to address the specific needs and interests of your audience.
• Keep It Concise : Focus on key points to maintain the audience’s attention and keep the presentation within an appropriate timeframe.
• Use Visuals : Employ charts, graphs, and images to make your points clearer and more engaging.
• Rehearse : Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure smooth delivery.
• Engage Your Audience : Encourage questions and interact with the audience to make the presentation more dynamic.

7 Sales Presentation Examples

1) piktochart: “sales pitch examples”.

Piktochart’s Sales Pitch Examples illustrate how to effectively communicate the value of your product or service. These examples showcase various strategies to capture and retain the audience’s interest, making them highly practical for anyone looking to enhance their sales presentations.

Canva Sales Presentation Template offers visually appealing templates designed to make sales presentations more engaging. These templates are easy to customize and suitable for a wide array of industries, helping presenters create professional-looking presentations effortlessly.

2) Slidebean Sales Pitch Deck Template

Slidebean Sales Pitch Deck Template is designed to streamline the creation of impactful sales presentations. The template guides users through structuring an effective pitch, emphasizing the art of storytelling to captivate potential investors and clients.

3) Prezi Sales Plan Presentation Template

Prezi Sales Plan Presentation Template offers a dynamic way to engage audiences with its distinctive zoomable canvas. The template allows sales professionals to outline their strategies and goals in a visually engaging sequence that captures the natural flow of a sales process.

It is designed to help presenters illustrate complex sales plans through a structured yet flexible narrative, enabling the audience to follow along through a visual journey of targets, tactics, and expected outcomes.

4) Queza : Pastel Color Sales Marketing Powerpoint

Queza : Pastel Color Sales Marketing Powerpoint from Envato Elements is designed with pastel colors and a clean, modern aesthetic, making it ideal for sales and marketing presentations that require a fresh and inviting look. This PowerPoint template is versatile, featuring a range of slide layouts that can be used to showcase products, market analysis, sales strategies, and more.

5) SlideSalad Sales Deck PowerPoint Templates

SlideSalad Sales Deck PowerPoint Templates ****offer a comprehensive sales deck that is robust and creatively appealing, ideal for making impactful sales presentations. It features hundreds of unique slides designed for various sales niches, allowing for extensive customization.

6) Solua : Cyber Monday Sale Event Powerpoint

The Cyber Monday Sale Event PowerPoint on Envato Elements is a powerhouse for creating high-impact sales presentations. This template features a modern design that effectively combines bold colors and sleek layouts to capture audience’s attention. It includes multiple slide options to showcase products, promotional offers, and pricing strategies.

7) SlideModel Sales Pitch Presentation Template

SlideModel Sales Pitch Presentation Template offers professionally designed templates tailored for sales presentations. These templates are structured to facilitate clear communication of complex data, strategic alignment, and persuasive storytelling. They are particularly useful for sales teams looking to present data-driven arguments effectively.

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To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

Are you intimidated by sales presentations and not sure how to best prepare for them?

Should you talk formally or informally? Should you talk about your product, or not talk about your product at all? What are the best practices to ensure every sales presentation results in, well, sales?

You’re not alone. 

Nearly 57% of B2B prospects and customers feel that their sales teams are not prepared for the first meeting.

While sales presentations can seem intimidating the first few times you participate in them, once you get the hang of them and create an efficient, thorough process, you’ll be able to glide through them a lot easier and a lot more successfully.

In this guide, we’re going to discuss,

• What is a sales presentation?
• 6 types of sales pitches and presentations.
• What should be included in a sales presentation?
• 23 sales presentations tips to help you close more deals

So let’s dive right in.

What is a Sales Presentation?

A sales presentation is similar to an in-depth sales pitch where companies promote a product\service they’re trying to sell to potential clients.

However, it’s usually more complicated and comprehensive than a regular sales pitch. There are multiple PowerPoint presentations involved , meetings, and lots of prior prep time to ensure you’re hitting all the right persuasion notes. 

Related : 12 Most Helpful Sales Report Templates for Teams

6 Types of Sales Pitches and Presentations

Contrary to popular opinion, a full sales presentation is not always necessary or even appropriate. Different situations call for different types of sales presentations and different approaches to selling your product\service.

There are several important sales presentations and pitches that all sales representatives and companies should be well versed in. Let’s take a closer look.

• The one-word pitch
• The social media pitch
• The elevator pitch
• A full-blown sales presentation
• Written sales presentations

Related : 42 Free Sales Dashboard Templates For Tracking & Improving Sales Performance

The One Word Pitch 

Can you boil down your brand’s value proposition to one word? Just like Google’s one word is ‘Search’ and Barack Obama’s was ‘Hope’, what’s your brand’s one-word pitch?

The Social Media Pitch

Sales reps using social selling are 50% more likely to meet or exceed their sales quota. 

With over 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, companies need to have a concrete, pithy sales pitch for their social media profiles. One that not only instantly tells your social media followers and potential customers what your brand is all about but can also withstand the test of ever-changing algorithms. 

An elevator pitch is a quick speech that instantly tells your potential clients what your brand’s all about and what solutions you offer.

It works especially well when you’re not formally trying to close deals, such as during networking events and similar functions. It can also be used during cold calls. 

A Full-Blown Sales Presentation

A full sales presentation usually happens in a meeting room with 1 or several clients and includes PowerPoint presentations slides , sales decks, handouts, and a fully prepped team. It also requires a value-heavy pitch, solutions your company is offering, and so on. 

Written Sales Presentations

68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to garner a new sales lead for future conversion. 

Written sales presentations, like landing pages, are getting really popular in this digital-first world. A high-converting written sales presentation usually starts with addressing the problem and presenting its solution, and outlining the benefits of the brand’s product\service. And the best sales pages have several complimentary graphics accompanying the text, as well. 

Webinars are sales presentations conducted via the internet. Usually conducted in real-time, it gives interested prospects the opportunity to get their questions answered on the spot, and similarly, it helps brands persuade prospects to convert.

What Should Be Included In a Sales Presentation?

An effective sales presentation should focus more on the benefits and solutions it offers, instead of its product\service’s features. 

After all, 88% of executive buyers want a conversation, not a presentation

Your sales presentations should also consist of:

• Testimonials from previous clients and customers
• Data, like graphs, charts, quotes, backing up your claims
• Customized content targeted to your prospective client
• A call to action, which usually includes next steps for the clients

Related : SMART Sales Goal Examples from 30+ Sales Professionals

23 Sales Presentation Tips to Help You Close More Deals

Now we’re on the most exciting part – tips and tricks to close more sales deals. To help you ace your next sales presentations, we asked 42 sales pro their best sales presentation tips. 

And here’s what they said.

Express your interest in working together

• Give hard copies of the sales presentation 

Leverage stories

Encourage questions, highlight case studies, make data a part of your presentation, outline your value proposition, follow up with your prospect, prepare yourself and your team, highlight client’s goals.

• Incorporate videos

Drive the no’s

• Don’t hard sell

Prime your prospects before selling

Solve your prospects problems, wear your confidence.

• Personalize it for your client

Know their competitors

Keep it succinct.

• Make it conversational
• Sell your brand, not your product

Demonstrate your product\service

End with a clear cta.

Related : The 37 Sales KPIs Every Sales Leader Should Be Measuring

PRO TIP: How to Set SMART Goals for Your Sales Team’s Performance

To decide which goals meet the SMART criteria, sales managers need to look at sales analytics for their teams and monitor sales KPIs, for example:

• Average Time to Close Deal
• New Deals Amount
• Number of Customers
• Average Revenue per New Customer

Based on these metrics, and in light of other revenue-based and activity-based goals, you can identify and set desired goals for future performance, but how to get this information?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our sales experts, who have put together a great Databox template showing an overview of your sales team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in sales reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up this Sales Analytics Overview Dashboard , follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

“Too often we just assume that, of course, the leads or prospects we’re reaching out to, or following up with, know that of course, we want their business. 

We don’t explicitly tell them, though, and that can be a very powerful thing to do. Something as simple as: ‘I’m really hoping to have the opportunity to work with you ,’ can make a big difference. It’s worked for me!” Explains Linda Pophal of Strategic Communications .

Give hard copies of the sales presentation

Dustin Singer of Dustin Buys Houses shares, “One of our most effective sales presentation techniques for increasing conversions is on top of giving an excellent presentation, we leave the client with a print presentation. This presentation goes into detail about who we are, what we do, how we can help them, the steps and process of working with us, and what next steps would be if they decide to work with us. 

This also includes their offer price, and terms and details of the proposed contract along with all of our contact information. It allows us to leave our sales presentation with them, so if they don’t convert over the initial meeting, we impress them with important information for the client to refer to as we work them through the sales funnel. 

We’ve received feedback about how our print presentations presented us as more professional than our competitors, and they felt more comfortable with working with us because of it.”

You can also turn that hard copy into an engagement exercise for your prospects. 

As Jeff Brandeis of Brandeis Training Solutions explains, “When presenting remotely, we typically provide a PDF that has incomplete sentences. We encourage people to fill in the blanks. People remember things when they write things down. Providing them a template to fill in separates our presentation from others.”

“Tell a story. No one wants to listen to stats on every slide. And your prospects can see right through your ‘visualize success’ ideas.

Instead, include a narrative with characters, setting, and plot. Make sure your prospects can empathize with the character. THEY need to be the hero—not you.” Says TJ Kelly of FreeDrumlineBeats.com .

Bradley Keys of PatchMD explains why stories work so well. “Stories give us an emotional connection, and it will be more effective if it is relatable to their situation. Share stories about how your products worked successfully for your clients. It is one of the leading sales strategies to help you improve your presentation and close deals. Statistics are useful, but make sure that it is not overwhelming – they are easily forgotten. Learn to play emotions when presenting as it helps to become more personal.” Shares Keys.

Nathan Binford of MarketChorus explains the benefits of using The Challenger Sale, a sales presentation methodology based on selling through constructive tension. 

“Learn and use a sales presentation methodology like The Challenger Sale to craft a compelling narrative every time you build a pitch. I’m a big fan of The Challenger Sale specifically because it forces you to ‘walk in your prospect’s shoes’ and emphasizes the importance of shocking your audience out of status quo thinking and into a receptive state.” Says Binford.

Luke Smith of We Buy Property In Kentucky recommends, “After your presentation, allow questions to be asked. As the customer or client gets the answers that meet their needs (for us – they layout terms they need for us to buy their house), I will say, “It sounds like we have a rough outline for a deal. What would you like to happen now?”

More often than not, they ask me about signing a contract to get everything started. This has allowed me to close numerous deals without the awkward transition to the close. The buyer is closing me rather than me pulling them to the closing table.”

The best way to encourage questions is by adopting the 60-second rule.

“To be more effective during a sales presentation, you must consider this — the 60-second rule. It’s simple; all you have to do is NEVER speak without entertaining questions or interruption for more than a minute.

Ditch your monologue and stop bombarding your audience with information. If you have been talking for more than 60 seconds without any interruption, it is most likely that your audience is no longer interested.

Keep in mind to engage with your audience throughout your presentation. Try to incorporate open-ended questions within your presentation to keep it conversational.

It’s easy to keep talking but always pay close attention to when to stop. By following this tip, you will increase your chances of securing deals.” Explains Dan Nolan of Camping Console .

“Drown your prospect in successful case studies for businesses like theirs. That’s my number one sales presentation tactic. It should be so obvious that you’ve done the work before, you’ve transformed situations from bad to great, and you’re certain you can do the same for them if they buy. 

For example, if you’re a B2B sales organization with a software company on the call, show them three case studies of the work you’ve done for other software companies. By doing you, their confidence rises and the doubt. that so often stops a sale, goes away.” Shares Brian Robben of Robben Media .

Brandon Amoroso of electrIQ marketing shares his experience of closing sales deals by highlighting success stories. Amoroso says, “Demonstrating our success rate at the end of a presentation through different case studies has helped our company demonstrate our knowledge in the marketing field.

We showcase studies that resemble the potential client and show them some of the ways we will carry out duties if they choose to partner with us. In doing this, we reassure them that they will be diligent with our time, communicate with them constantly, and work towards getting similar or greater results than those shown in the case study.”

Catriona Jasica of Top Vouchers Code agrees and believes success stories are essential to closing deals. 

“It takes real skills for the salespeople to be efficient enough and close a deal through their presentation. One of them is sticking to your success stories.

Sharing the statistics is surely vital to show your company’s growth, but your attendees are most likely to forget those figures. What will stick to their minds are the success stories you share in the presentation.

Let them know about your product and how it has worked wonders for your company and helped it flourish. Think of a compelling story, present it, and build an emotional connection with the clients. This undoubtedly helps you outstandingly to close the deal in the end.” Says Jasica.

Growth Hackers ’ Jonathan Aufray agrees and adds, “To increase your probability of closing a deal, you want to show your prospect how your solution helped similar people/companies in their industry. Showing them a case study on what you implemented, achieved, and accomplished for another client is definitely one of the best sales presentation techniques out there.”

David Garcia of ScoutLogic believes data is as important as success stories to seal the deal. “The most effective sales presentation technique that increases your chances of closing a deal is a quantitative analysis demonstrating the economic benefits of your solution. If you are running an enterprise sales cycle, by that point, you should understand the client’s pain points, the client’s personal win, and should be able to articulate the unique economic value only your solution will bring.” 

Trenton Erker of Clarity Online advises sales presenters to “Know the numbers in your industry and theirs. It’s compelling, authoritative, and adds to your charisma, your product/service, your company, your industry, everything. People trust industry authorities. They’ll also know you care.”

Susanne Pope of Whiterock Locators agrees with the two and says, “Including succinct and relevant data to drive your point across is one of the most effective presentation techniques that will increase your probability of closing a deal.

Anyone can make bold claims, but having the data to back up those claims will drive the nail in the coffin, so to speak. It’s also important that the data you’re presenting is clearly communicated in its relevance to the goods/services you’re pitching.

If you have data that the audience cannot make sense of, your odds of closing lessen. You also want to ensure you don’t overload your audience with data. The most critical data sets will do, but always be prepared to present more data should someone in the audience ask for it.”

Greg Taft, a Realtor , shares, “I would say the one item that gets me the most traction both from my pitch books from my private equity career and in my listing presentations to clients selling their homes is a strong value proposition.

The value proposition needs to be tangible and measurable. It is hard to put a number on intellectual property or intangible assets, but you have to. As an example, you can talk to a home seller about selling their home, but why are you the right agent for them?

You have to show that you are better than average, whether that be your homes are selling for more than they are worth, or your full marketing package is selling homes x days faster, etc. If you are just average, they will just shop for the cheapest rather than the most value.”

“Fundamentals win championships, and the same goes for sales professionals when they’re working to gain a new client. If there was one piece of advice I’d bestow upon someone new to the sales profession, it would be to follow up with your prospect . 

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect. Only 25% of salespeople make a second contact. Those alarming numbers, especially considering that 80% of sales are made between the fifth to twelfth contact. So if there was one technique that will increase your close rate on a macro scale, it would have to be to follow up with your prospect.” Explains Evan Donahue of JMJ Phillip .

Related : 36 Practical Tips for Writing A Great Sales Follow Up Email

When asked the most important sales presentation tip that helps close more deals, Nathan Bliss of Kinsta says,

“Prepare. There is no replacement for being prepared to go into a discovery or demo call. Know all that you can about that potential customer and their business. Make some assumptions about what you think might be important to them based on your experience, but test those assumptions with effective questioning while you are on the call.”

“I always state the potential client’s goals before I go into anything. They’ve told me what they want to achieve in a pre-call, but I reiterate that in my words, while I also hint at how we’ll get there by way of our services. Then I ask them, ‘Are we in agreement?’

If we don’t establish that agreement before I start the rest of the presentation, we can run into many swings and misses during the rest of the presentation.

That question helps me understand that my pitch is spot on, or tells me if I need to pivot some of my discussion points or commentary that are coming in the next several slides.” Shares Tracy Beach of Portent .

Incorporate videos 

“One unique and effective technique I use to help me close more deals is creating asynchronous video content, also known as recorded video, video messages, screen shares, or video voicemail.

By using a free screen-share or recording tool like Vidyard, you can turn your bland ol’ slide presentation into an interactive video that explains all the details that the recipient needs to hear.

Instead of the old methods of sharing PDF’s and hoping your customer champion will sell your pitch internally (which can become a risky game of telephone), instead, turn that PDF or presentation into an interactive video and send it via email (or any other channel) to your recipient.

This ensures that your message is heard the way you intended it to be heard. It also gives the recipient a simple way to float the video around to the decision-makers within their organization so they can get buy-in to push deals across the line. Think about using asynchronous videos to explain proposals, quotes, customer stories, demos, etc. Video works!” Says Jacob Fernandes of Vidyard .

Deepak Shukla of Pearl Lemon Sales agrees and adds, “A growing trend in sales and marketing is Explanation Videos. Expounding on your product’s value in a down-to-earth, relatable way helps build personal connections with potential clients.

It also prevents user bounce rates and increases your SEO ranking – meaning your client finds you easier and is more likely to stay on your page. All of these things contribute to vastly improving your chances of closing that sale!”

“I have found asking questions to drive the ‘No’ instead of the ‘Yes’ leads to more sales. By asking questions, the prospect has to answer ‘No’ opens up the door to get the ‘Yes’ at the close.

The ‘No’ questions are designed to get the prospect to tell you where they are coming up short or items they are missing. Asking these questions and actually listening will give you the upper hand when going through your sales conversation by letting you know their pain points without asking the standard ‘Yes’ questions.

So switch the way you direct your conversations from the ‘Yes’ questions to the ‘No’ questions, and you will see more success at the closing.” Explains Eric Bergman of Serendipit Consulting

Don’t hard-sell

Boxroom Office ’s Neil Roach believes that hard selling never works in a sales presentation. 

Roach says, “People know when they’re being sold to. Instead, your focus should be on solving whatever problem that person has and the most affordable way for them.

Far too many salespeople are trained to go in hard and basically talk the prospect into submission.

That approach shows a lack of finesse and a real lack of understanding of human psychology. Basically, it’s the path to most resistance, by its very nature.

The salespeople I’ve trained always focus on what the customer needs but rarely what the customer wants. If, for example, a customer wants a $1,000 smartphone, you should ask them what they need it for? If it’s “…just for calls and texts,” guide them to something more affordable.

That will cause one of two outcomes.

• 1. The customer will either buy the $1,000 phone on the spot because they know you’re not trying to strongarm them.
• 2. They’ll buy the cheaper phone, but tell everyone they meet how helpful you were and didn’t try to push the sale on them.

Either way, your business, and your reputation, and your sales figures will benefit.”

Lauren Shroll of Outside The Box opines, “When you work from specific questions and comments that put pressure on that meeting to convert, your leads who are not specifically in that small percentage of users ready to convert at the time of the call, are going to be turned off to a conversation that is already primed for someone who wants to buy.

Your ideal sales conversation should prime the user to buy, both at the time of the call and in future retargeting, by including invitations.

This means that you are inviting the user to share their concerns, preview the product, opt-in to email updates, and effectively gear the user to feel that it’s a perfect fit for their specific needs.

This is the case even if they are converting in the next 12-24 months. Your conversation should aim to make the user feel that they are comfortable making a purchase decision, but not necessarily focused on the present moment.”

And did this strategy work for her? 

Shroll shares her experience and adds, “Using this approach has helped massively with one of the software companies I work alongside.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we have enrolled three major clients in a program that equated to several hundred users.

The reason? We primed the sales call toward “continuing the conversation” to fit our leads at any stage of their buying journey.

A conversation that started as a sales call twelve months ago turned into a neatly closed deal in the most uncertain of times to achieve an amazing return on investment.

If you do include a quote in your story, please let me know when it’s published so that I can promote it across social media channels.”

“The most effective sales presentations that help us close deals all follow one formula: Educate the prospect on a pain that they have, leverage data that is unique to them to support the pain point, then solve the problem.

If you are using a sales deck, it should follow this framework without talking about your own product until the solution section.

If you are doing a live demo, you should break this same approach into sections based on the solution you are providing.

And every solution should first be teed up by education, specific pain for the client, then solution.

Following the formula in every presentation is the key to closing.” Says Zach Rego of Unstack .

Samantha Kohn of AutoVerify recommends taking a customer-in approach in your sales presentations. “You can increase your probability of closing a deal by taking a customer-in approach (rather than a product-out approach) in your sales presentations.

Instead of starting by explaining how great your product is, consider beginning with a discussion of the pain-points your customers are trying to solve.”

Osiris Parikh of Lilius says one of the most important sales techniques is to tailor solutions to the needs of a prospective client. Parikh explains, “Asking questions and showing genuine interest in helping them, rather than seeming like a robot reading from a script, allows for greater rapport and ultimately better solutions aligned to their situation. The chances of a sale only increase from there.”

Lynell Ross of Education Advocates agrees with them and gives some practical tips. “Stress how your product or service will make your customer’s life easier.

Most customers are stressed out and have a million things on their plate. Just as important as the money they’ll save by going with you or the upgrade in quality they’ll achieve is the ease with which they’ll do it.

Even if not relevant to your product or service’s substantive qualities, stress the importance of how your company or service will remove work and time from the customer’s plate, streamline their processes, and make them more efficient.

Reference the type of lift similarly positioned customers have experienced, and use data for that where available.”

“When presenting pitches to potential clients, confidence is everything because you are what you’re selling. How you handle yourself is as important as the presentation itself.” Says Jolene Caufield of Healthy Howard .

And the best way to do that is by showing your stuff. 

Adam Smartschan of Altitude Marketing explains, “Do your research and present it in an attractive fashion. The more you show you know your stuff, the more a prospect will be willing to work with you.

Don’t just tell them their competitors are doing it better. Show them what their competitors are doing, and explain why – then tell them how you’ll help them win.”

Richard Latimer of Veritas Homebuyers explains what works best for him in sales presentations. “The best presentation technique that I employ frequently is physical cues. This includes my posture, use of hands, eye contact, and tone of voice.

Having an upright yet relaxed posture helps make your counterpart feel at ease, using your hands helps illustrate your meanings, eye contact promotes trust, and your tone of voice should guide your counterpart through the presentation.” Shares Latimer.

Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls also shares her experience and says, “Before a sales pitch I always take a few deep breaths and remind myself I know this topic well, I try to make eye contact with at least a few people in the room as I speak and share stories from my experience to make my points.

I also try to smile a lot. That usually helps me relax and get started, and once I start talking, I am usually good to go.

I have presented successfully virtually, too, via video, online, and phone. With social distancing video presentations are a popular reality now and should be treated just as important as face to face meetings.”

Personalize it for the client

“One important tip is to personalize your sales presentation for your customer.

Most presentations are all about the company presenting them, which is quite backward since the prospect really doesn’t care about you (sorry). They care about their business and their own goals.

In some cases, your audience will connect the dots between the solution you offer and the problems they have, but it’s much more effective to do your research ahead of time and connect those dots between your customer’s unique problem and your proposed solution inside of the presentation.” Recommends Spencer Smith of IRC Sales Solutions .

Syed Irfan Ajmal who is a Growth Marketing Consultant at Physicians Thrive , says personalization of any sales presentation is actually easier than it looks. 

He shared a sales presentation example that helped him to win a 5-figure marketing contract. He shares the following:

• “1. Provide a forecast (traffic, leads, revenue) based on existing keyword rankings data of the client.

This visual example shows how the client stands to earn $49K to $99K per month by applying only 2 simple SEO/Content-Marketing strategies. 

• 2. Provide a comparison (in simple tabular format) of the client with the top 3-5 of their key competitors.
• 3. Provide specific content ideas (personalized for the client’s niche) that they can employ to attract more backlinks.

This visual example shows the specific ideas meant for a company working in the Household Industry. ”

Knowing your client’s competitors, what’s working for them and what’s not can easily make or break your sales pitch. 

Lenny Liebmann says, “I do research on my prospective client’s competitors. I make sure to include a passing reference to one or more of those competitors in my press. That way, the client gets the sense that I really understand their market and their challenges — as opposed to just peddling them something based on some sort of questionably universal value proposition.”

Digital Debut ’s Deniz Doganay also recommends keeping a close eye on your prospect’s competitors. “Actually, take the time to look at leading competitors of your potential client and point out the things they are doing well and what you plan to do to best them. Be very transparent in your company processes and policies as well, so the client knows exactly what to expect when entering an agreement with you.” Advises Doganay.

Mike Charles of Lookout Lofts believes short and to-the-point presentations are always better. “The 9-minute rule! Keeping your presentation to 9 minutes or less is a great rule of thumb to follow for keeping your audience engaged. If you are using slides, do not spend more than 2-3 minutes on each slide. This number is based on research that has shown audiences start to lose their attention around minute 11.”

Make it conversational 

Edwin Rubio of Vapor Empire says, “The more conversational of a pitch, the less of a sales presentation it will feel like. Everything will come more naturally by having an open dialogue because you are building the trust and rapport that many need to feel engaged and comfortable with making a purchase.” 

Melanie Musson of CarInsuranceCompanies.net agrees with Rubio and adds, “Think about the presentation as a conversation. Keep the client engaged and actively involved in the dialogue. If you do the presentation as a monologue, you’ll risk losing their attention.”

Sell your brand, not just the product

“I could write paragraphs about this. I witnessed first-hand how a sales process when well executed, will allow you to position a very normal product as the best in class. It’s all in selling on the brand and the solution.

Presentations that focus on the features and what features will do to you are losing presentations, in my opinion.

In our internal training process, we have a whole day about ‘Establishing Mastery’. Sales peeps and engineers have to establish mastery right after positioning the brand. You position the brand by talking about your internal values, how you run your business, what your vision is. And yes, this is no BS cause what you’re doing here is establishing trust with the company in front of you that you will be able to solve any problem that arises just because you are running a good business.

And that’s the key; customers should be buying the brand and not the product. First-hand. Now, of course, your product should be a real, reliable, and sustainable product that lives up to the expectations.

Once trust in the brand is established, then you dive into establishing mastery by showcasing that you know the ins and outs of the industry you are solving problems for, you understand actual use cases.

Always pull examples about current clients you have that are similar to the prospects you’re speaking to. This helps with social proofing as well as indicating to the prospect that you’ve been there, done that.” Explains Bob Sabra of Hovi .

Quincy Smith of Mira advises businesses always to show how their product\service works during a presentation to close more deals. 

“I’ve had great success by demonstrating the tools we use to complete whatever project it is we’re pitching. For example, when we show clients SEO tools and how we actually have search data on what terms they could be targeting, most of them have no idea that type of information was out there!

Experience and reputation will get you pretty far, but if you can give a little over-the-shoulder look at how you will perform your job, then you can really stand out!” Says Smith.

Alexandra Zamolo of Beekeeper believes the same and adds, “It’s always best to showcase exactly how the product or software will actually work in the exact manner in which the potential customer intends to make use of it. While most examples are great to illustrate features, a demo with more customization to the user’s exact needs will always provide better results.”

And don’t waste all your hard work by not having a clear, targeted Call to Action at the end of your presentation. 

“Every presentation or post should end with a ‘Call to Action’. The action could be anything from scheduling a meeting to submitting a query/feedback or anything else you feel is appropriate. It is important because, after the sales presentation, people are influenced. So before giving them some more time to think, it is better to involve them in some action!” Explains Adam Rowles of Inbound Marketing Agency .

Wrapping up

Sales presentations are an essential part of scaling your business. There’s no escaping them. So embrace them and try to incorporate all these tips into your next sales presentations.

As Mudassir Ahmed of Blogging Explained sums up all of them and says, “Spend less time talking about your company profile. And talk about R.O.I, how your prospect will see a return on their investment with your deal. But don’t go way deeper, awakening their logical nerves by which critical debates could happen.

Give a glimpse and value touch by adding your customers’ success stories or even case studies. You make sure to get the prospect to see himself/herself in your story and talk about the value they would get. That’s probably called human-centric marketing, where you invoke prospects’ senses with an emotion.

It also helps budget-hesitant prospects to get clear insights about their investment and ROI and make a positive decision about the deal.

Do your research and be ready to impress the prospect with this factor. The key is to be conversational rather than presentational.”

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Effective Sales Presentations: 11 Tips to Win Deals + Templates

What makes a sales presentation truly effective?

Is it that secret-sauce font, the comprehensive case studies, intricate graphs, or your shining personality? Or is it… something else?

It might seem like a simple question, but understanding the answer unlocks a world of opportunities for sales reps.

If your sales presentations are truly effective, they should accomplish these 4 things:

• Give prospects confidence in your brand
• Develop a deep relationship and mutual understanding of needs and priorities
• Convince potential customers of the value of your product
• Give clear direction for the next conversation

How many of your recent sales meetings have fallen short of these results?

A study by Forrester of more than 300 C-level buyers found that many reps are lacking key information for a successful sales meeting:

Put simply, most salespeople go into meetings:

• Unprepared for questions
• Without knowledge of the business or industry they’re selling to
• Without understanding the prospect’s situation and problems
• Without relevant social proof

Want to avoid falling into the trap of generic, ineffective sales presentations?

While preparing for and delivering a really good sales presentation isn’t an exact science, the following best practices will lead you to better results.

Let’s dive into the top methods sales professionals are using to nail their presentations and deliver killer sales pitches .

How to Prepare the Perfect Sales Pitch Presentation

Think you can get away with giving a great sales presentation on the fly? Think again. A PowerPoint presentation that was thrown together over lunch is not going to impress your decision-makers.

Preparation is a key aspect of every effective sales presentation.

Here are five ways you can prepare for success:

1. Set a Clear Agenda

Your sales presentation is built to guide the conversation and gives you a structure to work with throughout the meeting. But the prospect doesn’t know how your presentation is structured.

Does this situation sound familiar?

Prospect: “This is really interesting, but how does your product solve XYZ?”

You : “Actually, we’ll talk about that in a few slides. Anyway, as I was saying…”

These kinds of interruptions are common, and the popular response of “We’ll get to that” doesn’t normally go over very well with prospects.

Here’s how to avoid this: Set a clear agenda for the conversation, and share that with your prospects.

This could mean sharing an outline of the presentation topics you’ve prepared, or it can mean sharing the whole sales presentation with your prospect.

This way, your prospect can review the information before your meeting, see where you’ll cover certain topics, and save their questions for the right moment.

2. Adapt Your Script and Presentation

Above, we saw that 77 percent of reps enter meetings without a clear understanding of the issues that their prospect is facing, or areas where they can help.

There are two clear ways to fix this problem:

First, do your homework. The more you know about your potential client's business and current situation, the better. Also, try to understand their industry and target audience, read up on current news in the sector, and get a feel for the particular pain points this person is likely feeling the most.

Second, base your presentation and accompanying sales script on your ideal customer profile. If your sales team has multiple ideal customer profiles to sell to, discover which profile this prospect fits into and base your arguments, questions, and main points on the specific needs of this profile.

3. Pick Three Main Points for Each Prospect

No matter how many crazy statistics and fun features you throw at your prospect, they’re still only human. Shocking, we know.

In other words, they’ll probably forget at least half of what you say.

To create effective sales presentations that your prospects will remember, focus on three main bullet points that you want to highlight.

This isn’t a number we pulled from a hat. It’s based on an experiment performed by Kurt A. Carlson and Suzanne B. Shu. Their study found that, when your audience knows you’re trying to persuade them, the ideal number of positive claims to make is three. After four claims, your audience will start to become more and more skeptical of anything you say.

The title of their paper is a catchy phrase to help you remember this principle: Three Charms but Four Alarms .

So, go through your slides and pick three key points that you want your prospect to remember. Maybe these will be product features or maybe not, but once again, base these points on the real, felt needs of your prospect. You’ll see better results.

During the presentation, draw your audience's attention to these points as you introduce new ideas. Phrases like these draw attention at the right moments:

• Here’s the point…
• This is crucial…
• But this is what matters…
• But it gets even better...
• This next point is really important...
• This is what XYZ could mean for you, Jack…

And make sure these key points lead directly where you want them to—to your call to action. If they aren’t leading you to that, what’s the point?

For more, check out this video, where I talked in-depth about captivating and directing your prospect's attention during a sales conversation. Remember: whether you're delivering in-person or via video conferencing, maintaining eye contact and using body language to draw attention to main points works.

4. Use Visuals to Show, Not Tell

A sales deck can have several different functions. For example, if your sales deck is going to be read and discussed among stakeholders at your prospect’s company, it will need to include text that explains the visuals presented.

However, if you’re giving a sales presentation with that deck, it doesn’t need all that text.

To prepare a sales presentation for a product or service, make sure you include infographics and visuals that complement what you’re saying. You can use Canva or even a responsive whiteboard to do this.

Think of your slides as visual aids that give more meaning and context to your words.

These visuals can help to:

• Simplify complex processes
• Provide a clearer understanding of data/metrics
• Add credence to your words
• Keep your audience engaged
• Help your audience remember main points (this one is backed by science )

In short, for an effective sales presentation, keep your script and your slides separate. Use your words to add meaning to the visuals, and use your visuals to maximize the power of your words. With this approach, you will elevate your value proposition —and increase your close rate.

5. Show Them You Know Their Pain

Using a narrative in your presentation shows that you’re sympathetic to the problems your prospects are facing and that you know how to solve them.

So, what’s the narrative for your product?

Generally, the story you tell with your presentation will follow this pattern:

• There is a problem caused by a shift in the market, a change in the company’s circumstances, or the world situation
• That problem is solved, the business is saved, and your product is the hero

A compelling narrative that captures the feelings and frustrations of your prospect shows them that you understand them, you’re on the same page, and you’re here to help.

Maybe this is the story of how your product was born, to solve a problem internally at your own company. Maybe it’s the story of one of your successful customers. Or maybe it’s just a narrative that they can relate to and see themselves in.

In any case, using stories instead of just facts makes your presentation more memorable. According to one study, people only retain about 5-10 percent of the statistical information they hear. But they’ll remember 65-70 percent of the information they hear as stories.

Take advantage of this fact: Turn your data into a narrative.

Once you’ve prepared your sales deck and accompanying script, you’re ready to nail your next sales presentation.

Or are you?

Day-Of Sales Presentation Tips: Nail Your Next Sales Presentation

Ready for the big day? Here are six more tips you can use while actively presenting to your prospect, to give a truly effective sales presentation.

6. Open With Your Biggest Selling Point (Don’t Save it for the End)

Many sales reps like to save their product’s biggest selling point for the very end of their presentation, as if they’re coming to some grand crescendo.

But your prospect didn’t come to this meeting hoping to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. So, don’t play this pitch deck like another day at the theater.

Instead, open with your big selling points. Dazzle your prospects from the get-go, and you’ll have them hooked to the end.

To be counted among the Sales Success Stories and Stars of your organization… just go for it. Get the show on the road with a big opening. Leave them in (happy) tears.

7. Ask Open-Ended Questions

To understand your prospects and to keep them engaged with your presentation, questions are essential.

But wait, if you’re giving a sales presentation, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be doing the talking? You answer the questions, right?

True. But, how do you know if your prospect is paying attention? How can you highlight the relevant points in your presentation if you don’t know what interests them?

To engage your prospect and draw them into your presentation, ask questions like:

• Can you walk me through how your team handles [problem]?
• Have you found any clever workarounds for when [issue] happens?
• What would your ideal solution to this problem look like?
• How would you expect a solution to this problem to affect your team?

It’s true; you’ve probably asked a lot of similar questions during the qualifying stage . But with these questions, you can lead the conversation and keep your prospect engaged with what you’re saying.

Open-ended questions will also help you with the next tip:

8. Build Context Around Your Biggest Value Points and Differentiators

The same questions we shared above can help add context to what you’re saying.

Don’t just tell the prospect: “ Our product helps you solve X problem. ”

Add meaning to that value point by asking questions:

• How often do you face X problem?
• How much time/money do you lose when this happens?
• How does X problem affect the morale/productivity of your team?

When you have the numbers clear, reiterate the problem: “ So, you lose $X every week because of this problem. That’s more than $Y per year that’s going down the drain until you solve this issue. ”

Then, bring in your value point: “With our product, you could save $Z every year by eliminating this problem for your team.”

The same method works for highlighting your key differentiators.

Instead of telling prospects that your product is the best because it’s the only one that does X, lead prospects to the features and benefits that set your product apart with open-ended questions.

This creates value and context around a problem that only your product can solve.

9. Make Social Proof Engaging: Mirror the Prospect’s Situation

This data blew our minds and will probably blow yours, too: According to studies from our friends at Gong , sellers who use social proof in their sales calls have a 22 percent lower close rate .

Have you noticed a similar pattern with social proof in your sales presentations?

We all know that social proof is a powerful tool in the hands of sales reps and marketers. No need to throw out all your social media customer quotes or company testimonials. But, it must be used correctly to work effectively.

Otherwise, you could actually hurt your chances of closing.

So, what’s the correct way to use social proof in your presentations?

Favor customers that are part of this prospect’s tribe .

For example, imagine you’re selling to an SMB, and you tell them that Facebook is your customer. They’ll be impressed, sure… but they’ll also start to wonder if your product is really a good fit for their small business.

Instead, when selling to SMBs, talk about your other SMB customers. Use examples of happy customers who are in the same field or industry. Or, find customer stories that mirror this prospect—with similar pain points.

With tribal social proof, you’ll gain the respect of prospects while demonstrating that you truly “get” them.

10. Never Talk Price Before Value

Chances are, you’re talking price somewhere in this sales presentation. At this stage in the sales pipeline , it’s normal that your prospect is ready to hear what your solution will cost.

But don’t open the conversation like this.

Sometimes, you get into a room (whether in-person or virtual) with your main point of contact and important stakeholders, and the first thing they want to know is: “How much will this cost us?”

One of the golden rules of sales is this: Never talk price before value .

If you fold to the pressure and start off by talking about the price of your solution, your audience will view your product as a commodity, not as a valuable solution to their problem.

When stakeholders push you for a number, don’t be afraid to push back. If they’re insistent, turn the question back around on them:

“Before we talk about price, let me ask you this: How much will it cost your company if you don’t get these issues solved by next quarter?”

By focusing on the real monetary value that your product provides, you’ll help position your product as a premium solution, not a wholesale band-aid.

11. Keep It Less Than 10 Minutes

Did you know that every presenter at Apple’s product launches speaks for just 10 minutes or less?

This is because science tells us that the brain gets bored easily—our attention spans just can’t expand beyond a certain point. However, you can reengage your audience by introducing a change every 10 minutes.

Apply this principle to your keynote sales presentations: If you’re presenting longer than 10 minutes, the prospect’s interest will steadily decline. Wrap it up.

Our friends at Gong found that there’s a sweet spot for winning sales presentations: 9.1 minutes. It’s like the ideal elevator pitch for sales presentations.

So, stick to this rule of thumb: Keep your presentations under 10 minutes.

Sales Presentation Templates: Use These Sales Pitch Decks to Win More Deals

Want to build a stellar sales pitch presentation? Steal these presentation templates and customize them to your business—including stunning visuals, striking text, and a presentation process that wins deals.

Get the Powerpoint or Keynote version of these templates, and start creating your own effective sales presentations!

Ready to Give the Best Sales Presentation Ever?

You’ve got all the pro tips you need to nail your next presentation.

In the end, you want to demonstrate that you understand your prospect’s needs and concerns. Show you “get” them by adding a compelling narrative and including customer stories that mirror their own situation.

An effective presentation must also be engaging, which is why it’s essential to highlight three main points and add context with open-ended questions.

With this info, you’re ready to deliver a winning sales presentation. ( Psst... don't forget to use our sales presentation templates to get started!)

But what happens next? There are still some unaccounted-for areas of the sales process. If you want to really crush the follow-up and close more deals, you need a CRM to help you do it.

Close CRM does all this—and so much more. Watch our demo or try Close free for 14 days.

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11 Essential Sales Presentation Tips To Close The Deal Faster

The truth is, to sell a large quantity of  any  product, there is a set of steps everyone needs to follow. This process is familiar to many, including street vendors who use it easily.

Yet, it often goes unnoticed by many of us sales professionals, despite its potential to significantly impact sales success! To secure bigger and better deals, learning effective sales presentation techniques is essential. These skills can help you close deals quickly and with more confidence. For guidance on enhancing your presentations, keep reading on for more valuable strategies.

What is a Sales Presentation?

Sales presentations vs sales pitches: what’s the difference, the importance of effective sales presentations, what makes a good sales presentation, 11 effective sales presentation tips, 7 effective sales presentation skills every sales rep must have.

Understanding what makes a good presentation begins with understanding the sales presentation definition ;

‘a talk giving information about a product or service that you are trying to sell, intended to persuade people to buy it:’. 

A sales presentation is a meeting between an individual salesperson or sales team and a company. They attempt to persuade key stakeholders to close the deal by displaying the offerings’ capabilities, benefits, and features . They must align with your prospective client’s needs to achieve the desired outcome, which usually requires extensive planning and preparation.

A sales presentation is kind of like a more complex version of a sales pitch. They are comprehensive and tailored for significant deals that require in-depth discussions among multiple decision-makers. They play a crucial role in scenarios where the stakes are high and collective decision-making is essential.

Sales presentations are more detailed than a quick sales pitch. They’re part of a longer sales cycle, usually for significant deals. These presentations often require demonstrating the product or reviewing the sales proposal in detail. They often demand a higher budget. This covers not only the presentation, which often lasts an hour, but also the necessary preparation, scheduling, and rehearsals. Moreover, sales presentations often involve a team, not just one person. Everyone needs to work together as a team to understand and execute the plan.

Navigating the landscape of sales pitches can be transformative for your sales strategy. Choosing the right pitch type can make all the difference, whether it’s a brief chat or a formal meeting.

Here’s a deeper dive into the nuances of each pitch type and discover examples and templates that bring them to life.

Read more here.

The elevator pitch is often mistaken for a regular sales pitch, but it’s actually different. A sales pitch is a formal type of sales presentation, usually used in long buying cycles. It can take multiple times until a deal has closed. Whereas an elevator sales pitch quickly introduces your work to potential clients in a casual setting. You position yourself as the go-to solution they need, aiming to pique their interest and pave the way for a sale.

Crafting an effective elevator sales pitch is an essential skill for any professional. The right pitch can open doors and create opportunities during a brief encounter. An elevator pitch stands out from a regular sales pitch because it’s brief and gets to the point immediately. You have a short moment to grab someone’s attention and convey your message.

If you want to improve your ability to deliver a sharp elevator pitch, our guide is just what you need. It lays out the steps clearly and provides examples to help you craft your effective pitch quickly.

Craft your effective pitch now.

• Using Stories to Demonstrate Value
• The Ultimate Guide To Selling To The C-Suite

A sales presentation helps salespeople build connections with prospective customers. It allows them to differentiate their offering from competitors – with the end goal of closing a deal. Sales presentations are crucial for shaping future interactions in the sales process. They serve as a vital tool to convince prospects that your offering meets their needs perfectly.

Also read: How to Run Effective Remote & Virtual Sales Presentations

An effective sales presentation speaks directly to your audience’s needs, challenges and desires. A sales presentation grabs attention with an engaging story and a clear value proposition. It includes a strong call to action that tells the prospect exactly why your solution is the right choice.

Let’s break down the five essentials of a good sales presentation and the common structure many companies use. This approach helps ensure your presentation is effective:

What are the 5 Core Elements of Every Sales Presentation?

1. research.

You’re giving a sales presentation because you can solve a prospect’s problem. However, you mustn’t start the sales presentation with the solution. Rather, start on the problem itself and the subsequent challenges and pain points your prospect experiences because of it.

Prospects don’t see solutions or features; they see the value that comes with a suitable solution. That’s why you need to research prospects to understand what motivates them thoroughly. Understanding your customers’ challenges is key. As you learn more about their operations, you can customize their experience to offer solutions that truly add value.

2. Storytelling

Stories help prospects visualize the value of your offering . That’s why choosing a few stories to use in your sales presentations can resonate with your prospects. This approach is effective when you’ve thoroughly researched and understood their unique requirements.

3. A Value-Proposition

“What’s really in it for me?” – that’s what every prospect wants to know. Every prospect is looking to understand the benefits they’ll gain. They want to know why your product or service is worth their investment.

Suppose you can’t convince someone else that your product or service offers better value than your competitors. In that case, there is no point in wasting any more time trying to sell your solution. You’ll only ever hear, “We’ll be in touch.”

Always ensure you arrive prepared with a value proposition . It should explicitly state how your company’s product or service benefits prospects. For example, you can always follow the “value proposition formula.” To get started: [Company name] helps [target audience] with [services] so you can [benefits].

Prospects are more likely to move on to the next step when they see proof that others have gained from your solution. To achieve this, ensure you have plenty of social proof available from the get-go when meeting with your prospect. Overall, any proof of your effective solution helps answer the “how can I believe you” question from prospects. To do so successfully, consider sharing evidence such as:

• Client testimonials:  Enhance your credibility impact with reasons other customers love doing business with you. 
• Research data:  Use industry expert quotes to create bridge statements from your features and benefits. 
• Product comparisons against key competitors:  Tell them why your solution is better. 

5. A Call to Action

Last but not least, an effective sales presentation requires a strong call to action at the end to compel prospects to take action. Tell prospects what their next step should be, whether buying, taking internal steps, or trying a free trial.

Crafting a sales slide deck that connects with your audience and clearly presents your value is crucial for a winning sales strategy. It should spotlight your product’s benefits and features while telling a story that matches your prospects’ needs and challenges.

Learn how to create a sales slide deck that supports your pitch effectively and helps you close more deals, leading to more satisfied customers. It has a presentation template outline you can easily follow for your next sales deck.

Create your winning slide deck now.

Mastering the right sales presentation techniques can guide you through meetings and help you close more sales. Check out these methods below to boost your success:

1. Use the “Five-Second Rule”

Prospects have less and less time in this competitive and busy digital world. Capturing a prospect’s attention is hard, but holding onto it is an even harder! Keep the 5-second rule in mind: you have just fifteen to twenty words to capture your prospect’s attention. Ensure your overall opening statement is strong and directly relates to your audience.

2. Talk like an executive

Ideally, prospects will understand your sales presentation after the first minute. That’s why you need to use the appropriate language to address your audience. Not only does it help decision-makers connect with your solution quicker, but it also shows you’re prepared to respect their time.

3. Involve key stakeholders

Use your showmanship abilities and have the prospective decision-makers interact with the product you are selling. Encourage prospects to experience the product firsthand to appreciate its ease of use, softness, or the enjoyment it brings. Focus on its standout feature or benefit. When the customer gets involved, they can imagine themselves using the product, making it easier for them to buy.

4. Present solutions to painful challenges

Begin your sales presentation by focusing on the main issue that your prospect is struggling with. Describe how your product or service solves this specific problem they’re dealing with. Doing so shows them a way out of their current situation and the opportunities they could gain from closing the deal.

5. Make it memorable

When you give a  presentation , people will not retain everything you say. Often, we leave it up to chance what our prospects remember from our presentations. By adding certain elements to your pitch, you can guide what sticks in their memory. Keep it simple and direct, ensuring the key points are memorable and impactful.

• Visuals : The first element is to help them visualize. Use a visual on the screen that emphasizes one of my key messages. Aim to have no more than three key messages that you want somebody to walk away with. But use visuals to emphasize key points.
• Text : Also, put text on the screen, almost like underlining essential words in documents. Use text to highlight important points you want them to remember.
• Story : To get your  prospect  to remember your presentation, include a  story  highlighting your 3 key points. Wrap them in a story that touches on their emotions and can help them visualize how your solution will help them.
• Repetition : By using stories, text, and visuals and repeating your key points, your presentation will stick with the audience. They’ll especially remember the three main messages you want to highlight. Steve Jobs captivated his audience with his effective presentation style. He often used rhetorical techniques and focused on three main points to clarify his message. His presentations always typically emphasized products being thinner, faster, and lighter.

So remember to influence what people remember from your presentation. Use visuals, text, story and repetition.

Engaging presentation principles apply universally, whether delivered live or virtually. Spencer Waldron from Prezi offers insights on keeping your audience engaged. His advice is practical across all types of presentations. His strategies work for any presentation scenario, making sure people hear your message and remember it.

Get the summary here.

6. Prepare valuable insights

Another effective sales presentation technique is to prepare insights ahead of time for your prospects. Insights are accurate understandings of your prospect, your prospect’s business or your industry. These insights come from research, experience, and analyzing data and metrics. They aim to strengthen the relationship with prospects by offering them new ways to enhance and grow their business.

7. Don’t lead with your differentiators. Lead to them!

Suppose you lead by explaining your solution’s differentiating factors. In that case, you risk not hitting the mark and resonating with prospects about why this is so important. That’s why you should introduce your key differentiators only after the prospect clearly understands your backstory. View your key differentiators as clues you leave for prospects, helping them piece together the overall benefits.

8. Master the art of trial closes

Instead of expecting commitment from a single sales pitch, guide your prospect through a series of smaller steps that lead to the final commitment. A commitment is an obligation or a promise; an incremental commitment would be small, bite-sized pieces or portions. For example, you could ask your prospects to commit to:

• Meeting with you again.
• Reviewing your proposal.
• Introducing you to another decision-maker.
• Scheduling a conference call with key stakeholders.
• Forwarding a survey to their staff to understand their needs before you propose something.

Overall, the key is to secure a small, easy commitment from your prospect. When followed by consistent small commitments, this initial step gradually leads you to finalize those extensive, intricate deals.

9. Ask for feedback

The easiest way to lose the engagement of any audience is to drone on for long periods. While your words might be compelling, how you deliver them is crucial. That’s why you should start your presentation by inviting decision-makers to ask questions at any point. This open dialogue lets your sales reps gauge if they’re on target or need to adjust their strategy.

10. Ask for the sale

After the prospect understands the product, how it can benefit them, and how easy it will be to implement , ask for the sale . Consider the approach of the sidewalk seller’s case, who asks, “We have it in red, blue, green and yellow. What color would you like?” Determine what closes work best for you.

Also read: 15 Top Sales Closing Techniques To Increase Close Rates

11. Ask Again

If the customer poses an objection, overcome their objection and ask again. Persist even after an initial rejection. Reflect on the sidewalk seller’s tactic when he asks, “What else can you get in Singapore for $10?”. Salespeople often close most sales on the second or third attempt.

You don’t have to sit on a sidewalk with a loudspeaker blasting your every word to employ these techniques. You just need to demonstrate how your product makes life better for your customers. So find a way to get in front of your prospects, and make sure to follow these steps to maximize results.

We’ve already explored effective sales presentation techniques. Let’s recap the sales presentation skills every sales rep needs to close more deals. Discover each skill in detail below:

Research & Solution-Based Questioning

The first stage of preparing for a sales presentation is thoroughly researching your prospect. Skipping this preparation will likely result in the rejection of your ideas. That’s why all salespeople must be keen researchers of their ideal customers. Gather answers and insights about your prospect’s challenges with  typical solution-selling questions  such as:

• What are their most pressing needs?
• Do they know their most significant challenges?
• What are their aspirations?
• What’s stopping them from currently reaching these goals?
• What do their customers and stakeholders need and want?
• How could your solution help to negate these issues they’re experiencing?
• In what way will your solution position your prospect with a market advantage?
• How can you accurately communicate the benefits without solely discussing the solution to influence prospects to take action? 

The importance of Solution Selling vs. product Selling for effective sales presentations

What does  solution selling vs product selling  have to do with sales presentations? In product selling, the goal is to convince customers that it outshines the competition. This is why salespeople often detail features and prices to uninterested prospects. This approach focuses heavily on the product’s attributes during sales presentations. 

On the other hand, solution selling requires an alternative way of making a sale. Pinpointing your customer’s real-world problem is key. You can then demonstrate how your product is the right solution to solve their problem.

A compelling sales demo goes beyond showcasing features. This is a pivotal moment when the prospect truly sees what the product can do for them. Delivering a sales demo that informs, persuades, and excites is a skill that significantly impacts the sale’s outcome. This skill is vital for turning prospects into customers.

Our guide provides detailed steps for planning and executing a sales demo that will captivate and sway your audience.

Get the full detailed steps here.

Active Listening

You must be willing to listen to your prospects first so that they will pay attention to what you say. This involves more than just allowing your prospects to speak; it’s about actively listening to their concerns and feedback.

Sales professionals should be  listening 80% of the time and only talking 20% of the time . Allocate half of that 20% to asking questions, leaving just 10% for presenting and explaining your product.

To craft an offering that resonates with your prospect, pay close attention to the details they share about their problem. This tailored approach increases the likelihood of a purchase. Rather than spending time preparing an unappealing one-size-fits-all type of deal. 

Overall, effective sales presentations hinge on your body language. Show your prospect that you’re actively listening—through subtle head nods and comments demonstrating understanding and agreement.

Also read: 6 Personality Traits of a Good Salesperson Vs. a Bad Salesperson

Storytelling

Case studies have shown that  people are more receptive to stories  than almost any other type of communication. Our brains not only naturally crave stories, but we remember them and pass on the meaningful ones to others. That’s why incorporating storytelling into asking for the sale is so effective.

Create a hero with a clear name and personality, facing a practical problem they must resolve. However, you must take great care when deciding how to reflect your intended message. When crafting stories for your customers, ensure your storytelling speaks directly to your customers. Include the same hopes, ambitions, fears, regrets, and disappointments they too possess so they see their own stories reflected in yours.

Ultimately, prospects need to perceive you as self-assured to want to work with you. That’s why all sales reps should be confident in themselves and the solution they are selling. To achieve this, all skilled salespeople must rehearse and fine-tune their sales presentations well before it’s time to present. They practice to ensure that the delivery is articulate and compelling. Alongside employing body language techniques such as:

• Eye contact:  Shows prospects you’re interested in what they have to say.
• Standing/sitting straight:  Opens your posture, making your body language warmer and authoritative. 
• A firm handshake:  Always offer a firm but friendly handshake to make a good first impression.
• Smile:  An effective sales presentation technique for keeping prospects at ease when used naturally as not forced. 

Objection Handling

All sales reps should be able to list common past objections and grasp the reasoning behind each one. By doing this, reps can positively frame each response to each objection and practice it for the sales presentation. Continue reading to  learn common sales objections  and how to overcome them. 

Interpersonal & Rapport Building

Interpersonal skills are subtle yet impactful behaviors that help build rapport with prospects. They’re the key to transforming successful sales presentations into lasting, trusted relationships. As the saying goes, ‘People do business with people they know, like and trust.’ So, of course, you need to build rapport – and quickly.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to use your customer’s name and know how to pronounce it correctly. It helps to foster a sense of connection with them because they feel heard. People also kind of love the sound of their names—it’s a simple yet effective way to engage with them.

However, make sure to use their name naturally in the conversation – otherwise, you’ll come off as indigenous. Other types of interpersonal skills include:

• Communication style flexing:  Different prospects have unique ways in which they prefer to communicate based on their communication style. They typically fall into  one of four communication styles  based on two factors. Understanding the different communication styles and how to handle each individually can drastically improve your relationship and ability to connect with other people.  Furthermore, after fully identifying your prospective executive’s communication style, focus on understanding their decision-making approach. How do you do this? Ask yourself and the prospective executive  these questions . 
• Courtesy:  If good manners cost nothing, courtesy is critical for making prospects feel welcome and comfortable. 
• Understanding the prospect’s viewpoint : This can significantly impact our understanding of their motivations for buying—or not buying.

Engaging with prospects effectively is key to sales success. Doing so will allow you to close more deals and forge stronger business relationships. Building rapport, understanding communication styles, and demonstrating courtesy are just a few interpersonal skills that can significantly impact your interactions with prospects. 

Learn the subtle yet powerful strategies that can transform your sales approach and help you connect with prospects on a deeper level.

Discover the strategies here.

Master the art of closing deals remotely

Selling virtually is not a matter of just doing the same old sales pitch but online. You have to be highly organized and have tightly planned out presentations so you don’t leave your prospect bored and disconnected.

Check out our brand new  Virtual Selling course  to take your remote selling skills to the next level. The course includes 5 checklists, cheat sheets, and guides, and 15+ on-demand virtual selling lessons.

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12 Best Sales Methodologies & Customer-Centric Selling Systems

Updated: September 14, 2022

Published: July 14, 2022

In life, there tends to be a sweet spot for just about anything — the perfect recipe for getting the most mileage out of any activity, engagement, or effort. In sales, finding that sweet spot is a matter of identifying the sales methodology that best suits your business at a specific point in the sales process .

Figuring it out can be the difference between closing and losing a deal — so the burning question becomes, "Which one should I choose?”

In this article, we’ll explore some popular sales methodologies and cover some expert advice to help you implement the right one for your business. And if you’re in a pinch, jump to where you need to go using the links below.

What is a sales methodology?

Best sales methodologies.

• Customer-Centric Sales Methodologies

How to Implement a New Sales Methodology

A sales methodology is a framework or set of principles that guides your sales reps to close clients. It takes goals and turns them into actionable steps for your reps to complete during each stage of the sales process.

For example, some sales organizations implement different sales methodologies to reach their prospects' pain points throughout the buyer's journey.

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Sales Model

A sales model is a business’s specific approach to selling and outlines how to make a sales methodology work. Unlike a sales process , a sales model usually doesn’t apply to the entire sales cycle .

Methodologies or models tend to be best practices relevant to one specific part of the sales cycle — whether in the qualification, discovery, demo, or follow-up stages of the process.

Another key difference between sales processes and sales models has to do with specificity and individual business needs. Every organization should develop its own unique sales process based on its customer's needs, vertical, products, and industry position.

Although different, your sales model/ methodology still needs to align with your sales process if you want to consistently close sales — especially B2B sales.

Since no two businesses are the same, a process that works for one company could flop for another.

That’s not the case with sales methodologies.

Different sales organizations can implement the same sales model and see similar success — no matter what their companies sell or how they function. For example, consider "The Challenger Sale" methodology — which is listed below.

Regardless of whether your business offers ERP implementation services to large enterprises or cooking supplies to local restaurants, your sales team could still see success from employing the methodology's principles — like offering surprising insights and helping prospects navigate the buying process.

If you’re confused about which (or how many) sales models or methodologies you should use to help shape your sales efforts, don't worry. We’ve summarized the best methodologies here.

Let's take a look.

• SPIN Selling
• N.E.A.T. Selling™
• Conceptual Selling
• SNAP Selling
• Challenger Sale
• The Sandler System
• Solution Selling
• Inbound Selling
• Target Account Selling
• Command of the Sale
• Gap Selling

1. SPIN Selling System

Neil Rackham popularized the SPIN sell in his book, SPIN Selling .

SPIN is an acronym for the four elements a sales rep's questions for prospects should focus on: situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff.

These subjects often reveal buyer pain points and challenges and help sellers build rapport with their buyers.

• Situation questions aim to understand a prospect’s current situation — although reps should still research a call or meeting.
• Problem questions get to the heart of the prospect’s issue.
• Implication questions probe the prospect to think about the consequences of not solving the problem.
• Need-payoff questions prompt the prospect to consider how the situation would change if their problem were solved.

Here’s an example of the SPIN sell in the context of an executive recruitment services firm.

• "How does your current hiring process work?"
• "Do you find that you have trouble filling your senior leadership positions with quality candidates?"
• "If a leadership position goes unfilled, how does that affect the organization?"
• "If you were able to get a list of quality executive candidates, how would that help the HR department and the entire organization?"

Rather than explicitly telling prospects about a product or service’s value or potential impact, the goal of SPIN selling is to guide prospects to these realizations on their own.

2. N.E.A.T Selling System

Developed by The Harris Consulting Group and Sales Hacker, this qualification framework was designed to replace standbys like BANT (budget, authority, need, and timeline) and ANUM (authority, need, urgency, and money).

The “ N ” in N.E.A.T. stands for core needs. Rather than focusing on surface-level pain, this methodology's creators urge salespeople to go deeply into their prospect’s challenges. How will this product matter to them both as an individual and within the context of the organization?

“ E ” represents economic impact. Don’t simply present your solution’s ROI — help the buyer understand the financial impact they’re currently on track to realize versus the impact they’ll see if they make a change.

“ A ” is access to authority. You probably won’t get to speak with the CFO, but can your champion talk to the CFO on your behalf? And more importantly, will they?

“ T ,” or Timeline, refers to the exciting event forcing your prospect to make a decision. If there aren’t negative consequences to missing this date, it’s not a real deadline.

3. Conceptual Selling System

Conceptual selling is founded on the idea that customers don’t buy a product or a service — they buy the concept of a solution the offering represents. With that in mind, founders Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman urge salespeople not to lead with a pitch — rather, they encourage sales reps to uncover the prospect’s concept of their product and understand their decision process.

The authors encourage salespeople to ask questions that fall into five categories:

• Confirmation questions reaffirm information.
• New information questions clarify the prospect’s concept of the product or service and explore what they’d like to achieve.
• Attitude questions seek to understand a prospect personally and discover their connection to the project.
• Commitment questions inquire after a prospect’s investment in the project.
• Basic issue questions raise potential problems.

This sales methodology emphasizes listening and divides the sales process into three stages: getting information, giving information, and getting commitment.

All transactions should be win-win for both the prospect and the salesperson. If the salesperson feels this is not the case, they should walk away from the deal.

4. SNAP Selling System

SNAP Selling is a sales methodology that aims to bring salespeople to the prospect’s level.

SNAP is an acronym that encompasses four directives for sellers:

• Keep it simple
• Be i(n)valuable
• Always align
• Raise priorities

With these principles in mind, salespeople can more effectively reach busy prospects with valuable knowledge, connect what they’re selling with what’s most important to the potential client, and make it easy for them to buy.

And while most salespeople only think there’s one decision involved in a deal — whether the prospect buys or not — author Jill Konrath identifies three critical decisions.

The first is allowing access. The second is choosing to move away from the status quo, and the third is changing resources. With these mini decision milestones in mind, salespeople can more effectively keep deals on track.

5. Challenger Sale

Co-authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson started " The Challenger Sale " by asserting that practically every B2B salesperson fits into one of five personas: relationship builders, hard workers, lone wolves, reactive problem solvers, and challengers.

According to Dixon and Adamson’s research, salespeople are almost evenly distributed among these profiles.

However, the most successful were the challengers — by a wide margin. This one group represented 40% of the top-performing reps in the authors’ study.

So what makes challengers so effective at selling? They follow a teach-tailor-take control process.

Teach : First, they teach their prospects — not about the product or service in question, but about more significant business problems, new ideas, and astute observations.

Tailor : Next, they tailor their communications to their prospect.

Take Control : Finally, they control the sale by not being afraid to push back on their customer, focusing more on the end goal than being liked. The Challenger sales methodology strives to impart the wisdom of the challenger to the other four types.

This particular approach requires well-thought-through personalized lead nurturing campaigns. They slowly get prospects to warm up to the business until they reach a point where they’re most likely to make a purchase.

Sales software can help reps manage and identify prospects who are most likely to convert at any given time, as well as send out personalized emails or schedule meetings to close deals just at the right moment. 

6. The Sandler Selling System

The Sandler Selling System flips the script of the traditional sales process — to a certain extent.

While sales has historically revolved around the idea that potential buyers should be pursued and convinced by sellers, the Sandler methodology states that both parties should be equally invested.

It prioritizes building mutual trust between both sides. Instead of acting like a typical salesperson, the rep serves as an advisor and asks questions to identify challenges in the qualification process.

Objections such as time or budget restraints often derail deals after a considerable amount of work has already been invested by both prospect and salesperson. But Sandler-trained reps strive to raise and assess the majority of obstacles in the qualification process.

If the rep discovers that their solution won’t truly address the potential client's concerns, they won’t waste time convincing them that it does — they’ll simply abandon the process. Rather than the seller convincing the buyer to buy, the buyer is almost convincing the seller to sell.

MEDDIC is a qualification process for complex and enterprise sales. The acronym stands for metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identify pain, and champion.

To find the answers, ask yourself and your prospect:

• Metrics : What's the economic impact of the situation?
• Economic buyer : Who controls the appropriate budget?
• Decision criteria : What are the formal evaluation criteria the organization is using to pick a vendor?
• Decision process : How will the organization pick a vendor? What are the specific stages?
• Identify pain : What are the trigger events and financial consequences of the problem?
• Champion : Who is selling on your behalf?

8. Solution Selling

Rather than selling specific products, salespeople leverage solution selling leads with the benefits a custom solution can provide for the prospect.

For example, a sales rep for a printing and design company could create a custom package of design services, signage, and business cards to fit the buyer’s needs.

This approach acknowledges buyers today are more informed and allows reps to meet prospects where they are. After all, it’s likely prospects have already researched your products and have a solid understanding of the offerings that suit them best.

With solution selling, sales reps identify prospect pain points and offer a customized mix of products to meet their needs.

9. Inbound Selling

Sales and marketing goals have become increasingly intertwined.

Sales and marketing goals have become increasingly intertwined. Potential buyers interact with content the marketing team creates and often research products on their own before contacting the sales team.

The inbound sales methodology allows sales professionals to meet prospects where they are — whether that’s on Twitter or their company’s product pricing page.

Inbound sales analyze page views, conversions, and social media interactions to personalize the buying process. By following an inbound approach, sales reps can focus on selling using a flywheel model instead of a traditional sales funnel.

As prospects make their way through the awareness, consideration, and decision stages of the buyer’s journey, inbound sales reps take four actions:

• Identify — Inbound sales reps prioritize active buyers rather than passive ones. Active buyers have visited the company site, started a live chat, filled out a form, or reached out on Twitter.
• Connect — Inbound reps connect by reaching out to prospects with a personalized message through their blog, social media accounts, or in-person events. This personalization is based on the buyer’s role, interests, industry, or connections you have in common.
• Explore — In the exploratory phase, reps focus on rapport building and recap previous prospect conversations. At this stage, reps dive deeper into the prospect’s challenges and goals, introduce products or services that might fit these goals, and create plans that accommodate buyer timelines and budgets.
• Advise — Finally, reps create and deliver a personalized sales presentation covering what they’ve learned about the prospect’s needs and the value and assistance your product or service can provide.

10. Target Account Selling

Target account selling is the idea that picking the right prospects to engage with is the most crucial aspect of a sales process — that means paying careful attention to and conducting more extensive research during lead qualification, mapping out organizations , and creating buyer personas.

This particular methodology can lean heavily on sales automation — resources that can help your sales organization identify traits that characterize prospects who will be most receptive to your solution and broader sales process.

The critical point with this methodology is to prioritize quality over quantity significantly when it comes to pursuing leads and targeting accounts. It involves putting in extra legwork at the beginning of a sales process, hoping that it will lend itself to higher close rates and more efficient sales efforts down the line.

11. Command of the Sale

The Command of the Sale methodology involves selling with urgency, some degree of bravado, extensive product knowledge, and exceptional situational awareness — all aspects of sales that could be described as commanding in their own right.

The success of the methodology rests on a salesperson's understanding of what a prospect hopes to achieve, the ways a prospect wants to create value for their business, how the rep's solution — specifically — can make good on those elements, how the prospect measures success, and why the rep's business stands out from its competition.

With those bases covered, a salesperson operating within this methodology needs to be able to explicitly define how their solution suits their prospects’ problems, needs, and interests in a way their competition can't. And that pitch has to be enough to warrant charging a premium for their company's product or service.

12. Gap Selling

Gap Selling is a methodology rooted in highlighting the gap between where a prospect's business currently stands and where they would like it to be. Its underlying premise rests on addressing problems as opposed to touting products.

With gap selling, reps put prospects first. They develop a deep, fundamental understanding of a potential customer's business, issues, and — perhaps most importantly — goals. Then, they determine the best possible way to position their product or service as the most effective means of filling those gaps.

Developing that understanding means digging deep — pinning down the root causes for any trouble a prospect might be having. As you may assume, that kind of intense examination can be time-consuming, so this methodology best suits sales teams that have the time and flexibility to take a holistic look at a prospect's situation.

Customer-Centric Selling

In addition to the methodologies above, customer-centric selling can be a beneficial approach to implement.

Customer-Centric Sales Methodology

The customer-centric sales methodology promotes meaningful conversations with prospects to identify their needs and find solutions that solve their challenges. The salesperson targets critical decision-makers and asks questions to understand their situation, align with their needs, and offer relevant solutions.

Customer-centric behavior hinges on eight tenets:

1. Have a conversation rather than deliver a presentation.

Customer-centric selling is about prioritizing empathy for the customer above all else. That means understanding where customers are coming from and the specific situations they might be dealing with.

One-size-fits-all presentations aren’t personal enough. With this methodology, you need to adapt and converse based on the customer’s individual needs and experiences.

2. Ask relevant questions instead of offering opinions.

Again, empathy is the operative concept in customer-centric selling. You want customers to know you’re listening, feel like you’re genuinely concerned with their best interest, and understand you’re thinking about solutions specific to their individual needs. If you’re dominating the conversation with opinions and not considering their perspective, you’re not engaging in customer-centric selling.

3. Focus on the solution instead of the relationship.

The key to customer-centric selling is to understand that your priority isn’t selling — it’s solving. The point of the whole model is to understand a specific situation for an individual customer and offer a fitting solution . If you can do that, a solid relationship should follow. But simply building that relationship can’t be your main priority.

4. Target decision-makers instead of users.

Customer-centric selling focuses on the use of a product and the specific problems it can consistently solve. It’s less about the product’s features and more about what day-to-day use of it looks like.

That kind of selling is tailored towards the people who can make vendor selections and free up unbudgeted funds for an entire company instead of individual users who might be more interested in fancy bells and whistles.

5. Promote product usage to garner interest.

This point ties into the one above. Customer-centric selling revolves around showing how using the product you’re selling will make life easier for your prospect. Instead of discussing a product’s features and assuming your potential customer will figure out how to apply them on their own, show what the product can do, and demonstrate how it can solve their specific problems.

6. Strive to be the best seller rather than the busiest.

Quality over quantity — that’s the name of the game when it comes to customer-centric selling. According to this methodology, it’s better to apply your effort toward finding solutions for fewer individual customers than to spread yourself thin and halfway-commit to several customers.

7. Close on the buyer’s timeline rather than the seller’s timeline.

The whole concept of customer-centric selling is selling based on your customer’s best interests and specific dilemmas. Getting there isn’t always going to be easy, quick, or straightforward.

Don’t press your customers to stick to your schedule. Ideally, you’ll be able to help your customer come to a resolution on a schedule that works for both of you. But ultimately, it’s their solution. It’s their business. So, it’s going to have to happen on their time.

8. Empower buyers to buy instead of convincing them.

The fundamental reason for every instance of customer-centric selling is simple — the customer has a problem. Your job as a salesperson is to empower them in their effort to solve it.

You’re not selling a product so much as you’re selling a solution. Your priority should be to show how your product fits that solution — not how awesome your product happens to be in general. You’re selling to them for them. Be sure to keep that in mind.

To help you get a better idea of how to put one of these methodologies into motion, we reached out to some HubSpot sales experts.

Rachael Plummer — HubSpot Global Manager, Solutions Provider Program

"Salespeople today are inundated with content. So while I think it's the best time to be a sales rep, it's also the hardest! There are a million different ways to have a connect call, send an email, or find new leads — and sales reps have to constantly parse through that content to pin down what they deem to be significant enough to implement in their day-to-day.

So as a sales leader, it's critical that if you are going to present a team with a new sales methodology and disrupt their current flow, you need to keep the capacity of new information the team is going to choose to retain in mind. Once I've determined that a new sales methodology is worth adopting, there are a few things I like to focus on to make it easier.

First, it's imperative that as a leader, you believe in the methodology yourself. For the team to prioritize this particular methodology, they have to know you believe in it too and that you're capable of implementing it. A reverse role play works really well here, where you, as the sales leader, play the rep and your team plays the customer.

Next, I like to emphasize how this new approach will help both the team and our customers. As a team, we have to believe in the mission — we have to see a North Star. Why would someone who continually achieves their goals stop doing what they're doing if they don't see the greater value?

This can be achieved by demonstrating an anticipated increase in leads, meetings, sales, or customer retention. If there isn't meaning behind the approach or a clear path to success, it will not receive the calories it deserves.

And finally, I like to ensure that the steps in a new sales methodology are outlined as simply as they can possibly be. Can it be digested and adopted within a matter of minutes? If we're going to ask a salesperson to take a step back in their day away from immediate revenue-generating activities, then that has to be the goal."

David Torres — HubSpot LatAm Sales Director

"Whenever a methodology is introduced, and change is needed, the first thing I try to do — before presenting it to my team — is to understand what will stay the same. There are bound to be changes, but there's probably going to be a starting place of transition that looks similar to what we're already doing.

Often, we index on the changes, but change can be incredibly uncomfortable. I want to champion change as evolution and as a continuity of the things we're already doing well.

The change itself essentially becomes evolution as a natural consequence of improvement. Why would I choose not to do things better when we've evolved to the point that we can actually do things better?

In a team meeting, I present the change and the 'why's,' but I start to draw the parallels of what's going to continue or the iterations that need to be made. Here's where you give your team a minute to reflect — a place where you can highlight how what you were doing today is going to evolve.

For instance, let's say we used to prospect via email, and now we need to pick up the phone. There's a parallel between what you wrote in your email and the script you'll use when you call. It's not 'new,' it's an evolution.

Another example could be telling your team, 'Now, we're going to use GPCT to qualify rather than just BANT alone. BANT worked because of XYZ — you should look at GPCT as a continuation of BANT through context.

Change, in my experience, is best absorbed through small chunks. I don't need to migrate all of it by myself 100% on day one. But, if I set a target of where I want to be a month out, I can strive for progress rather than perfection. The same goes for the team."

Dan Tyre — HubSpot Executive

"Methodology changes can be easy or complicated based on the degree of change required. Slight changes — like adding or refining individual steps or updating the questions used during a stage of a process — are largely tactical and easy to implement.

The sales team should recognize the change, understand the update, and implement it over a matter of weeks to get the desired outcome. But if you are completely rewiring a sales process — like upgrading to an inbound sales or consultative sales approach — you need to leverage a more comprehensive and flexible strategy.

Start with the goal and work backward. For instance, say, 'We want to close more deals' — something most sales teams will be on board with.

Next, you need to move to the data.

You might be implementing a methodology change because what you're seeing as individuals or a team is that you're not moving from stage one to stage two, in keeping with the expectations of your industry or organization. That means you have to try something different — in this context, that's adopting a new sales methodology.

That's going to require some change management. Some reps get it quickly, while others will take some more time. After all, your methodology has probably been ingrained in your sales process for years, and that's okay!

As long as you and your team are making progress, and your reps understand that they're going to have to work through these changes within a set window of time, you'll be in a good place.

It also helps to institute a film night — a designated time where you listen to calls with the team to show new methodology's steps and best practices, allowing your team to more effectively model the process.

After a reasonable amount of time, your most nimble reps should be up and running, but some 'slow percolators' might need some extra help. In those cases, you review the overall goals and benefits of the methodology, zero in on the difficult segments, and take baby steps to address and improve the delivery."

Start Using the Best Sales Methodologies

In sales, the prospect is the priority. Their success should be the focal point of any deal you make. Every sales transaction should enable a buyer to achieve a goal, solve a problem, or satisfy a need.

Finding the sales methodology that allows you to consistently fulfill those ends is central to creating meaningful sales efforts that will build productive, mutually beneficial relationships with loyal customers.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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10+ Sales PowerPoint Presentation Examples To Get Inspired!

One of the biggest challenges B2B sales and marketing teams face is creating sales presentations that impress potential customers and lead to conversions.

So, what does an excellent sales presentation look like? Today, we'll explore some of the best examples to help you craft your own outstanding presentation. And that’s not all, we’ve interviewed our head of sales, Robert Juul Glaesel , to provide you with the BEST insights to unlock success. So…let's dive in!

We’ll be covering the following topics

What is a sales presentation?

Sales presentation vs. sales deck vs. pitch deck.

• Sales Presentation PPT Examples - and why they were successful

Sales Powerpoint Presentation Templates

Sales presentation video examples, get ready to create the best sales presentation: tips from our sales expert, unlock success: expert support for your sales presentation design.

Let’s start from the top! - Or, as always, you can skip to your preferred section.

A sales presentation is a crucial part of the sales process. It refers to a meeting where a sales team showcases their product or service , persuading potential customers to purchase.

This meeting typically takes place after initial contact with the prospects , either through marketing efforts, cold calls, or expressions of interest from potential customers themselves.

In this meeting, the sales team usually provides a comprehensive overview of the product or service. They address key points such as:

• What is the product or service?
• How is it used?
• What distinctive features does it have?
• What problem does it solve?
• Why is this their best option?

→ Free Download: 10+ Sales PowerPoint presentation template [Access Now]

The sales presentation and sales deck are pretty similar. On one hand, a sales presentation is designed to persuade potential customers about the value of your product or service. It typically includes detailed information about your product, its features, benefits, pricing, case studies, testimonials, and more.

On the other hand, a sales deck is essentially a condensed version of a sales presentation . It is usually concise and only includes key highlights.

In contrast, a pitch deck is a presentation created for investors to secure funding. It generally contains information about the company's vision, the problem it aims to solve, market opportunities, business model, and financial projections.

Sales Presentation PPT Examples: and why they were successful

Below are several sales presentation examples you can use as inspiration to create your own. Let’s look at each of them and see exactly why they were successful.

Spendesk is a powerful spend management platform designed to help users save time and money by offering a clear view of their company expenses. Their sales presentation is the definition of a successful sales presentation: it is incredibly clear and straightforward . It clearly defines the problem it solves and introduces you to the solution, highlighting how it stands out from the competition.

As you’ll see, this presentation is not overloaded with text - it's simple and easily shows you how the product works. And most importantly, it’s branded! Which is key for brand positioning and visual consistency .

To check it out, click here .

Reddit Advertisement Sales Presentation

Reddit's sales presentation is definitely one of a kind. By incorporating memes and other pop-culture images throughout their deck, they engage the audience and stay true to their brand identity . This approach not only resonates with the Reddit community but also sets them apart from mundane sales pitches.

The presentation not only provides valuable data and showcases the effectiveness of its product but also does so effortlessly, proving that a presentation does not have to be overly serious to be effective.

Click here to explore Reddit's engaging sales presentation.

Zuora, a SaaS platform for subscription billing, takes a compelling approach in its sales presentation. It starts by highlighting the industry's changing landscape , effectively showing the importance of adapting to these changes.

But Zuora doesn't stop there. Throughout their presentation, they also showcase what their platform can do for the audience and provide social proof to back it up . This includes quotes from CEOs and other business executives who have successfully used their platform to improve their subscription billing process.

See for yourself and check out one of the best sales deck examples here .

Drift, a web-based live-chat tool for sales and marketing, takes a unique approach to its sales presentation. They begin by highlighting a common problem that many businesses face : how traditional communication methods, such as email, calls, and forms, are insufficient.

The presentation then goes on to showcase how Drift can provide a solution to this problem. They demonstrate how their live chat tool offers a more personalized approach to communication that can lead to impactful results.

Check out Drift's impressive sales presentation here .

Salesforce, an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, provides a valuable lesson about creating sales presentations that convert . They start by explaining how the industry has undeniable changes and how we need to adapt to keep our businesses successful.

But they don't stop there. They continue showing us what things can look like, in other words, "the promised land," and how their product can change everything about how companies do things. And obviously, they finish with the greatest success stories from CEOs and clothes executives.

Click here to get inspired by the Salesforce presentation.

→ Free Download: 10+ Sales PowerPoint presentation PDF [FREE]

Snapchat Advertising

Snapchat Advertising's sales presentation stands out not only for its visually appealing design but also for its unique features. The presentation begins by emphasizing the vast reach of its platform and key age demographics, providing valuable insights for those looking to make the most of their marketing campaign .

In addition, Snapchat Advertising effectively compares itself to the competition, showcasing its unique features and advantages. And, of course, the presentation is visually branded with the company's iconic ghost character , making it instantly recognizable.

Check out their captivating sales presentation here .

Klima’s sales presentation is a special one. This climate change app’s presentation makes sure we know they are a company that focuses on “what truly matters.” It presents itself as a business with real, global impact.

And that’s not all. One standout feature of Klima's sales presentation is its visually appealing design. The slides effectively showcase the app's interface and demonstrate its key features. This visual representation really helps prospects consider getting an employee benefit with purpose .

Click here to get inspired by one of the greatest b2b sales deck examples.

Are you ready to create the best Sales PowerPoint presentation? We’ve got great news for you! Discover our sales presentation templates that you can download for exactly $0 .

Any of these templates could be a GREAT starting point for your next sales presentation . And what’s best…they are completely free for you to download at our Templates platform ! You’ll find not only these ones but also hundreds of other PowerPoint templates, for ANY industry, completely at your disposal.

Sales presentations can take various forms, including videos. Video presentations can effectively engage and captivate the audience by combining visual content, audio narration, and sometimes animations or graphics. Here are a few examples of sales presentations that are delivered in video format:

Medallia's video presentation showcases the effectiveness of using video to clearly represent their platform. The video highlights the platform's features, demonstrating how it can be a powerful tool for businesses.

By utilizing video, Medallia effectively shows viewers what the platform looks like and what they can expect to access and analyze in terms of data. The detailed exploration of each feature gives potential clients a comprehensive understanding of the platform's capabilities and how it can benefit their business.

Click here to check it out.

Moodcaster, a digital casting platform, starts with the main problem: how time-consuming castings can be and how tedious auditions are . It then shows you how they can be a great solution and how the platform works.

This video presentation truly shows what the client can expect when using the platform , by showing the process step-by-step. And if they are not convinced yet, it ends up listing all the fantastic features it has one by one, leaving the best impression.

Click here to view Moodcaster’s incredible video sales presentation.

Viable, the pioneering experience analysis platform, doesn't just identify the problem you're facing; it swiftly transitions to showcasing how they can provide the solution . They offer a real-time demonstration of how their platform works, providing concrete insights into how it can improve your business.

Finally, they conclude by highlighting all the advantages, features, and versatile applications that can benefit your specific needs.

Click here to take a look at Viable’s video sales presentation.

We know that creating the best sales presentation is key for your business. So, in order to provide valuable insights, we consulted Robert Juul Glaesel , head of sales at 24 Slides, who understands the importance of a good presentation for your business.

Let’s take a look at some insights from our head of sales:

Insight #1: Take elements out instead of adding elements in

Remember that quality is always more important than quantity . So, keep in mind not to overload your presentation with excessive text, because your audience’s attention will go directly there, instead of your speech. In Robert’s words:

“If you incorporate too many elements, it results in clutter, obscuring the main message and making it more challenging for the presenter to effectively convey their message.”

Insight #2: Don’t rely on your slides

We know this might sound counterintuitive, given that all this article is about creating your presentation, but remember that the presentation and the story are yours . As Robert says:

“Make sure that your presentation supports your story, it shouldn't tell your story. You, as the presenter, are the storyteller. Therefore, presentations should emphasize key points.”

Bonus insight #3: Brand your sales presentation !

This is one of your most crucial presentations; it should reflect who you are . There should be consistency between what they see on your website, social media, etc., and what they will see in this presentation. So, it is extremely important that you show that you care about your image and pay close attention to detail.

Creating a sales presentation is an incredibly important task, so it's best to leave it to the experts. Here at 24Slides , we can assist you in creating an amazing sales presentation that perfectly aligns with your brand. All you need to do is share the content you want to include and your brand guidelines. In less than 48 hours, you'll have your presentation ready for sales!

Want to learn more? Check out these articles!

• The Best Sales Presentation Services for Winning Sales Decks
• How to Create the Perfect B2B Sales Presentation
• Learn How to Start an Effective Sales Presentation
• Top 20 Free Templates for Corporate and Business Presentations
• +20 Self Introduction PowerPoint Templates: Download for free!

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10-Steps to Your Ultimate Sales Presentation (with Examples)

One of the first things every new salesperson needs to learn, if they are to succeed, is how to develop and deliver a sales presentation. A lot of factors go into developing a sales presentation for a specific situation. However, by following a logical series of steps, it will greatly enhance the chance of making a sale.

A sales presentation is defined as “a talk giving information about a product or service that you are trying to sell, intended to persuade people to buy it.” Historically, sales presentations were delivered one-on-one with the salesperson, presenting directly to a buyer.

However, technology has expanded the traditional in-person sales presentation to include the potential for video conference presentations, telephone presentations, presentations delivered via email, and even long-form presentations delivered via internet web sales pages.

Regardless of the delivery method, a salesperson who follows a logical series of steps will have the greatest chance of making a sale.

The graphic below depicts an outline of the Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation:

Each step of the Ultimate Sales Presentation is important and contributes to the likelihood of making a sale. That said, not every step is needed in every selling situation. Sometimes the buyer is ready to buy after Step 4: Presentation. Sometimes the buyer will inject objections immediately as the salesperson begins, Step 3: Approach.

As I said, every salesperson/buyer interaction is different. The relational salesperson is acutely aware of this difference and will flex their presentation to meet the needs of the buyer.

10-Step Ultimate Sales Presentation

So now, let’s take a quick look at each of the 10-Steps of the Ultimate Sales Presentation.

1. Prospecting

Prospecting is the first step in the selling process. A prospect is a buyer who has the potential to buy your product or service. A lead is not the same thing as a prospect! A lead is simply someone for whom the salesperson has contact information. Once the lead has been qualified, they then become a prospect.

A lead becomes a qualified prospect when they exhibit these three characteristics:

• They must have the money to buy.
• They must have the authority to buy.
• They must have a desire to buy.

Prospecting is the lifeblood of many sales roles. Keeping a pipeline full of potential prospects is critical in industries like real estate, insurance, and vehicle sales. Even many retail businesses (like department stores) rely on prospecting to develop new customers.

2. Pre-approach/Planning

Planning is the second step in the selling process. Planning is done after we have identified a qualified prospect, and before we approach the customer.

A plan is a sales presentation strategy designed to achieve a specific end goal. A plan describes what you want to achieve and how you will do it.

The desire of a relational salesperson is to help people. The purpose of meeting with a buyer is to help that person in some way. The purpose of the plan you create is to help the person by selling the right product or service to meet their needs.

Planning is critical to the sales process because it accomplishes four things:

• Planning builds the confidence of the salesperson.
• Planning demonstrates the salesperson’s professionalism.
• Planning often builds goodwill between the salesperson and the buyer because the buyer sees the effort taken by the salesperson to meet their needs.
• Planning increases the probability of making the sale because the salesperson better understands the buyer’s needs.

3. Approach

The approach is the third step in the selling process. It is the period of time between when the salesperson first sees the buyer up until they start to discuss the product. The approach is the first step of the actual sales presentation.

The approach step of the sale presentation process consists of two distinct, yet equally important, parts. First is the rapport building, “small talk.” This is usually the first minute or two of the sales meeting where the salesperson might talk about something you know the buyer is interested in (sports, weather, family, children, etc.).

The second part of the approach step is the planned, formal lead-in to the actual discussion of the product.

The main thing every buyer wants to know is whether the product you’re about to discuss will meet their needs. As a salesperson, your approach to lead-in to the presentation with the buyer must accomplish three things:

• You must capture the buyer’s attention .
• You must stimulate their interest in your product or solution.
• You must then transition smoothly into the presentation.

The approach lead-in might take the form of a statement, a question, or a demonstration. Whichever method you choose (statement, question, or demonstration), you must capture the buyer’s attention, stimulate their interest in the product, and transition into the main body of the presentation.

Approach Example

An example of the statement/question approach is, “What a wonderful picture of your two children! How old are they?… That’s a wonderful age. Mrs. Buyer, the reason I wanted to meet with you today is I have an idea that I think will increase your sales and profit. Is that something you are interested in?”

As soon as you have the buyer’s attention and gained their interest, it’s time to transition directly to the main body of your presentation.

4. Presentation

The presentation is the fourth step in the selling process. The presentation is your persuasive verbal and visual explanation of your selling proposition. The presentation follows the approach.

The presentation takes the buyer through five distinct stages in the buying cycle that build upon one another:

• To provide knowledge in the form of features, advantages, and benefits so that the buyer can make an informed decision.
• This knowledge translates into positive beliefs about you and your product/service.
• The positive beliefs result in the buyer having a desire for the product.
• The desire for the product becomes an attitude that your product is the best product to fulfill the buyer’s need.
• When the buyer realizes you have the best product to meet their needs, they move into the conviction stage. They are now convinced yours is the product they need to buy.

Once the buyer has reached the conviction stage, it is time for a trial close.

5. Trial Close

A trial close is the fifth step in the selling process. The trial close is not asking the buyer to decide to buy. Rather, the trial close asks for the buyer’s opinion regarding what they have heard so far.

The trial close allows the salesperson to determine:

• Whether the buyer likes your product or service.
• Whether you have successfully answered any questions from the buyer.
• Whether any additional questions remain unanswered.
• Whether the buyer is ready for you to close the sale.

The trial close is an important yet often underutilized tool. A trial close can be used:

• After making a significant point in the presentation.
• After answering any questions or objections from the buyer.
• After the close of the main body of the presentation, and before you move to close the sale.

Trial Close Examples

Examples of a simple trial close include,

• “Does that answer your question?”
• “How does that sound to you?”
• “What do you think about what we’ve discussed so far?”

If the trial close results in a positive response from the buyer, jump to Step 9: Close. However, most trial closes will result in some questions or objections from the buyer. It’s time to determine and handle objections.

6. Determine Objections

Determining objections is the sixth step in the selling process. Assuming the trial close has resulted in questions or objections from the buyer, we now must begin the process of discovering those questions and handling those objections.

Some salespeople bristle and get defensive when asked questions or confronted with objections from a buyer. But this is the wrong way to think about objections! Salespeople should be grateful for questions and objections because they indicate the buyer’s interest. They also help the salesperson determine which stage of the buying cycle the buyer is in—attention, interest, desire, or conviction.

If the buyer has raised an objection, the salesperson needs to ensure their understanding of the objection. One easy way to do that is to restate the objection and ask for confirmation.

Determine Objection Example

For example, if the buyer has raised an objection about the expected life of a machine, the salesperson might say, “If I understand you correctly, your main concern with this machine is that it will provide you with trouble-free service for several years. Is that right?”

When the buyer confirms your understanding of the objection its time to move to the next step in the selling process and handle the objection!

7. Handle Objections

Meeting or handling objections is the seventh step in the selling process. Once you have determined you understand the buyer’s objection, you need to handle the objection. Usually, objections should be handled as soon as they are brought up. However, you may want to delay handling the objection if you are just about to talk about the question in your presentation.

There are four important points to consider when handling objections:

• Handle objections when they arise.
• Be positive when responding to objections.
• Listen carefully to the buyer as they state their objection.
• Confirm your understanding of the objection.

Some objections are false, and these can usually be ignored. However, if a buyer brings up an objection a second time, it is most likely a real issue, which needs to be addressed.

Real objections are almost always a request for more information. So, the best way to handle them is to answer the question with the specific relevant information the buyer needs.

Handle Objection Example

Going back to our machine question in the Determine Objection section above, the salesperson might continue, saying, “I certainly understand your concern. Our company has placed over 300 of these machines in companies like yours over the past ten years, and I’m proud to say they have a 99% run rate with no failures!

8. Trial Close

A follow-up trial close is the eighth step in the selling process. Whenever a question or objection is raised and handled, it’s time to try a trial close. As before, the point of the trial close is to ensure you have answered the buyer’s question to their satisfaction. If there is any doubt that the buyer is satisfied with your answer, you need to dig in to discover what other issues the buyer might have.

Trial Close Example

In our machine example, the salesperson might simply say, “Does our machine’s long life and 99% run rate answer your concern for our product’s reliability?”

When the salesperson feels that all the questions and objections have been addressed satisfactorily, it’s time to move on to the Close!

The close is the ninth step in the selling process. Closing is simply the process of helping the buyer make a decision that benefits them. The salesperson should attempt to close the sale when they feel the buyer is in the Conviction stage of the buying process.

Unfortunately, research shows a whopping 64% of salespeople fail to close. They fail to ask for the order! There are several reasons why this is the case, but generally, most of them revert to fear. The salesperson is afraid of failure, of being told “no.” Whereas, relational salespeople who are selling to solve problems and help people should never be afraid to ask for the order!

Good closers plan the close of their sale as carefully as they plan all the rest of their presentation. The close is not something you tack on to the end of the presentation, hoping that the buyer will say “yes.”

Close Example

There are many ways to close, but the simplest way is just to ask for the order and stop talking.

A salesperson might say, “Mr. Buyer, we’ve covered a lot of ground today, and I think you agree this machine will increase your production and improve your sales and profit. I have the order contract ready for your signature.” Then stop talking!

Another form of the close that I personally like is the assumptive option close. The salesperson might say, “Mr. Buyer, we’ve covered a lot of ground today, and I think you agree this machine will increase your production and improve your sales and profit. Would you like to have it delivered and installed next week, or would the following week be better for you?”

10. Follow-Up and Service

Finally, follow-up and service after the sale is the tenth step in the selling process. Sales are not about you. It’s about you taking care of your customers, and that happens after the buyer says “yes.”

What you do after the sale to provide follow-up and service to the customer is critical. It makes the difference between making a sale to a customer one time and making a sale to the same loyal customer many times year after year!

A salesperson who is diligent about providing follow-up and service after the sale will outperform the salesperson who does not perform that service. This maxim holds true simply because it is always easier to sell more to a current happy customer than find new customers. Happy, satisfied customers tell others and provide a flow of new business leads to the salesperson.

There are six steps the salesperson should take after the sale:

• Focus on improving account penetration. Get to know as many people in the account as you can. Look for needs or problems that you might be able to solve.
• Continue regular contact with the customer. Make sure every promise made in the presentation is kept.
• Handle any issues or customer complaints immediately. Things will go wrong, and the speed at which you handle even a minor issue demonstrates your commitment to the customer.
• Always keep your promises. Nothing destroys a developing relationship, like not keeping your promises. Stay true to your word. The customer placed their faith in you when they bought your product. You need to respect that faith by keeping your word.
• Become the customer’s business advisor. Do what you can to shift from the role of the salesperson to that of the trusted advisor by providing helpful industry insights, new information, or problem-solving solutions. Become a valued partner in the business!
• Show your appreciation. Showing your appreciation is a simple way to demonstrate you are thinking about the customer. Never underestimate how much a handwritten thank-you note, a congratulatory phone call, or a birthday card will mean to a buyer!

There you have it, a quick overview of the Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation Model!

The Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation Series

I hope what I shared with you here has helped you understand and appreciate the power of the Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation model. But I’ve just scratched this surface here! Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing more detail about each step of the model with more examples.

If you want to learn more about the Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation model, you can subscribe to the series here. That way you won’t miss any of this valuable information!

Join the Conversation

As always, questions and comments are welcome. What questions do you have about the Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation model? Are there any steps you think are more or less important than others?

I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because of people like you who share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?

Category: Salespeople

Related Posts

Your Complete Guide to Customer Retention: Service and Follow-Up (with Examples)

Your Complete Guide to Closing the Sale (with Examples)

Your Complete Guide to Flushing Out Buyer Objections

How to Leverage the Trial Close in Your Ultimate Sales Presentation

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Sales presentation

Last updated: 11 November, 2023

What is a sales presentation?

What makes a good sales presentation, how to make a sales presentation, checkout our sales pipeline templates freebies.

Did you know people process visuals nearly 60,000 times faster than text? Our eyes are a predominant perceptual system for information coming from the outside world to the brain. Nearly 90% of the data we receive comes from observing, and images are stored in our memory for a very long time. 

It’s no coincidence that any advertisement, be it a video or a banner, includes both a verbal message and a visual aid. Marketers and sales reps exploit this quality of human memory to boost communication and close more deals. 

In particular — by creating effective sales presentations .

A sales presentation is a short presentation of your solution to prospects or existing customers that aims to persuade them to make a purchase.

The answer is simple. A winning sales presentation:

• Helps convince the client of the brilliance of your solution.
• Doesn’t simply describe a product or service but draws attention to the features that can solve the customer’s problems.
• Is not overloaded with facts and statistics.
• Doesn’t make your potential clients want to doze off (a boring sales presentation is a sales killer).
• Persuades the prospect that no one else on the market can satisfy their needs as well as your company can.

But what exactly should it include to get your prospects’ attention, establish good relationships with them, and accelerate the sales process?

We wish there were a recipe for a sales presentation, but there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation about its ingredients: wording, style, format, or length. 

Still, there are some tips to help your presentation end in a sale: 

1. It’s all about the balanced layout

If you use PowerPoint or other presentation software, it’s better not to put multiple graphs, images, text, and statistics onto one slide. Your audience needs time to focus and concentrate. It hurts when you try processing the slide below, doesn’t it? 

Find the right balance between statistics and visual components. Charts, tables, and bulleted points are great, but if your presentation consists of grouped facts only, it won’t win the heart of your listener.

3 elements are just enough. If there’s more, break the slide into multiple slides instead!

Besides, as a speaker, make sure you don’t seem offhand or uninformed. Clients, especially in the B2B market , appreciate precision and professionalism. For them, the presentation packed with Google images just won’t do.

All the material presented should be of high quality and serve a point.

2. Make it short and sweet

Like any meeting, a sales presentation follows a clear agenda. Nothing will distract a client from the deal more than a prolonged conference that makes them want to escape the room. 

Here’s what works best for us: arranging 20 minutes for the speech plus 10-15 minutes for the Q&A section. This way, a sales presentation won’t take more than 30-35 minutes . It can be even shorter than that. After all, there’s a reason TED talks are 18-minute long.

If you think this time isn’t enough, schedule follow-ups, subsequent sales pitches , or agree to continue via email or phone. 

3. Work on the slide deck

Avoid adding meaningless slides; use an interactive presentation maker instead, to keep your audience engaged.

There are three conventional ones: a title, table of contents, and a “Thank you” slide. Apart from these, it’s up to you how many to include in the sales presentation. Typically, it takes from 1.5 to 3 per single key point. If we consider a 30-minute duration, that’ll sum up into 10-20 slides .

4. Start a sales presentation with a self-introduction and small talk

This is an act of courtesy to introduce oneself and briefly tell who you are. In particular, when you meet new people. Unfortunately, due to the stress, some speakers forget about it.

No less important is to catch the audience’s attention from the very beginning. A story from one’s life, a joke, a surprising fact — whichever magnet you choose, make sure it corresponds to the time and place. By the way, if you want to get inspired, check out these best TED talks ever .

5. End your speech by wrapping up and outlining further steps

Although a sales presentation may not result in a closed deal or a revenue boost (it can but on rare occasions), this is a business process. So, apart from having a good pastime with clients, a sales rep has to mildly yet distinctly drop a hint about how it’s better to proceed with the deal.

Define the purpose

Your speaking style will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. Remember outstanding demonstrations of Apple’s new launches held by Steve Jobs? Each of these is an example of a winning sales presentation. 

The speaker aimed to persuade buyers that the product was so one of a kind, that it was a matter of life-and-death to purchase it. A speech was corresponding: the majority of time was devoted to demonstrating new UI / UX features, and less attention was paid to the technical side.

To succeed with the presentation, ask yourself what exactly you need to convey:

• Explain unique selling points
• Focus on money benefits
• Position your brand to competitors
• Create urgency around the deal, etc.

Adjust your sales presentation based on the audience

Does your audience consist of decision-makers , stakeholders, ordinary employees, or all three at once? What industry do your clients operate in? How old are these people? Is the audience multilingual? Any details are important because they will determine:

• The language and wording you choose
• Jokes you can or can’t tell
• Images you should and shouldn’t use, etc.

Consider means available

Your presentation may be doomed to fail if you don’t consider technical issues. Imagine, you expected to display a growth graph on the big white screen but were provided with a TV screen instead. Your audience won’t be able to see anything, and half of the speech will be lost.

Prepare key points & season them with data

It’s important to have a good understanding of what you are about to present. Let the numbers speak for themselves: prepare a few metrics or statistics and mention these during storytelling. However, don’t turn a presentation into a report — 2 or 3 graphs, tables, or diagrams will be more than enough.

If you plan to share the presentation among participants, you can include links to resources. This way, people interested in more details can retrieve the data.

Design the sales presentation structure

Use a “10-20-30” formula: 

• No more than 10 slides
• 20 minutes to speak
• No font smaller than 30 pt.

A good idea is to google some pre-designed sales presentation templates. This will save time on formatting plus give you useful ideas about the overall structure. Below are websites that might be helpful:

• Freecreatives

If you are in doubt, break your speech down into minute detail and align it with the sales presentation. Also, prepare cheat sheets — the latest price list, full specifications, etc. This way, you will be able to fend off any questions from the public.

Wrapping up

A good sales presentation fits the audience. Put yourself in the client’s shoes and wonder, what would YOU want to listen about? What facts might comfort you, and what questions might arise? With the customer in mind and with thorough preparation, your presentation will be a sure hit.

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9 Incredible Sales Presentation Examples That Succeed

In our analysis today, we’ll be reviewing the top sales presentation examples.

Why? Because customers want to understand how you’ll be able to add value to their businesses. As such, how you deliver your sales presentation in of the essence.

As tempting as it may be, you need to steer away from thinking of a sales presentation as a “pitch”. This is because, in baseball, the best of pitchers tend to strike batters out.

Since this is not something we want to do, we’ll look at creating convincing pitches that resonate and get hit right out of the park.

By the end of our review, you should have the tools you need to make that home run and meet all your goals.

What is a Sales Presentation?

Elements of a great sales presentation, 1. 21 questions, 2. clarify the priorities, 3. customer is always right, 4. moving pictures, why sales presentation is important for businesses/sales reps, 1. face-to-face, 2. engagement, 3. flexibility & versatility, 4. consistency, overview of the top sales presentation examples, 1. snapchat, 4. salesforce marketing cloud, 5. office 365, 7. immediately, 9. talent bin.

A sales presentation refers to a formal and pre-arranged meeting online or at a location where a salesperson gets to present detailed information about a product or product line.

A great sales presentation is one that endears a brand to prospects. For this to happen, you first need to ensure that it’s not purely focused on products. Rather, it should be tailored to connect with your audience.

The trick, therefore, lies in making your narrative compelling.

Living in the informational age has forced salespersons to change tack when handling customers. This is because more than ever, prospects have all the relevant data about what they want right at their fingertips.

As such, before you make your presentation, you need to first ensure that the information you have is relevant. You can then use that as a Launchpad to connect with prospects.

Importantly, you need to practice listening and avoid religiously sticking to a script before responding to objections.

Often times, salespeople tend to spend plenty of time preparing for what they want to say to customers. While this is perfectly okay, it’s also essential to dedicate enough time to draft the right questions to ask.

With an objective outline of questions, you may actually find yourself deeply engrossed in conversation with prospects.

If you find that prospects are not willing to fully confide in you, it’s good practice to tweak your setup with leading questions before tabling open-ended questions . The responses they share will be able to inform you on how to proceed with the interaction.

Before you begin your sales presentation, you need to first clarify what their priorities are. It’s also good practice to inform them that you’ll be making logical pauses during the presentation to query about what they think about certain points raised.

If you’re unsure about what kind of questions to ask, try to frame the questions from the prospect’s point of view.

Questions like, “How do you see that fitting into your existing process?” and “How does that compare to what you’re currently doing?” are great ways to frame your inquiries.

As always, the end-goal is to close sales. You can facilitate this happening by promoting engagement levels.

When handling prospects, it’s best to first talk more about them, and less about you. If you have prepared “about us” slides, then have them featured right at the very end of the presentation.

Ideally, you want to put more emphasis on your customers’ goals, expected outcomes, and then divulge how you’ll lead them towards success.

To further convince them to join your bandwagon, it’s important to showcase how others have benefitted from your initiative.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is the real deal.

By incorporating videos as part of your sales presentation, you’ll be able to break the monotony that usually exists in text-only slides. While making your presentation, try to also walk about the room and engage your audience.

If you follow through on these steps, you’ll realize you have plenty of talking points throughout.

As a suggestion, try to also make a video about how you can aid your prospect’s company. It also wouldn’t hurt if you interview a couple of team members and hear their take on a range of issues.

As a salesperson, you can use sales presentations to inform, educate, inspire and persuade prospects to buy your products.

A well-crafted and detailed presentation can actually help a business reinforce its reputation and act as a showcase of the level of professionalism.

Before we list out a host of sales presentation examples, it’s best to first note that they are a great way to meet up with customers and prospects in person.

Through face-to-face interactions, you can build trust and reinforce existing relationships . When done right, you may realize an influx in the number of purchases after such meet-ups.

Sales presentations are great when it comes to audience engagement. This is because images have the power of captivating audiences while bullet points can help them follow the logic of the entire presentation.

By injecting theatre during the presentation, you can leave a lasting impact on individuals. This is quite in contrast than if you decided to just talk to them. This heightened sense of engagement is great since your message is properly relayed to your audience.

Sales presentations are fantastic because you can swiftly change up the content and make modifications on the fly. They are vastly better than printed mediums like brochures where you have to stick to the agenda and making tweaks is usually an expensive undertaking.

Presentations are also a versatile communication tool. You can employ them in one-to-one meetings or in large meetings that require you to make use of a projector. Alternatively, you can choose to expand your reach by making them available for online viewing and downloading.

Sales presentations offer you a structured way to communicate about different products, services, and companies.

If you’re working in an organization, you’ll realize that people in various departments are capable of communicating information in a consistent fashion.

Having revealed this, it’s worth pointing out that you need to make good use of bullet points/prompts to ensure that you always remain objective and stress on the key points.

Snapchat , the impermanent photo messaging app, is a big hit among millennials.

Having been conceived as part of a Stanford class project in 2011 under the initial name of Picaboo, it’s has quickly risen through the ranks. Today, it’s one of the most dominant social media platforms out there because it encourages self-expression in the here and now.

• From this sales presentation example, you can clearly see what Snapchat was trying to do. While a large portion of it is filled with fine print and explanations, they’ve divided it into major talking points that readers simply can’t miss. This strategy is great since it ensures even readers who simply want to skim through the content are able to catch all the highlights.
• Impressively, they also created content that resonates with prospects of varying levels of knowledge. This is a fantastic strategy since it increases the probability of closing a deal.

The self-proclaimed “front page of the internet” has been shaping trends for a good minute now. Eager to impress, the sales honchos at Reddit decided to go the sales presentation route and won hearts while at it.

• Reddit’s opening image of a cat riding a unicorn has great visual appeal and helps leave a lasting impact with audiences
• This is one of the best sales presentation examples because Reddit strives to remain objective and stick to its brand identity
• Reddit also makes great use of memes and pop-culture images to get their message across. This is a great strategy since Redditors love this kind of content. In addition, it helps the brand stand out from the rest because of the “X” factor in their presentation.
• The round data figures shared by Reddit are also striking since they help their audience to digest the information and get to thinking how a product/service can help them grow

This social media management tool gives you the freedom to manage multiple social media profiles in a single dashboard.

• Their sales deck is fast-paced and begins with them sharing how they have left an impact on the social media scene. This is a brilliant strategy since it helps audiences get a breakdown of the services offered without much ado
• In other slides, Buffer goes at length to share their milestones and how they’re planning to grow their reach in the years to come. This is one of the finest sales presentation examples because it’s systematic and they manage to bring the message home with every slide

Salesforce is renowned as being the driving force behind one of the world’s top CRM solutions, Sales Cloud. Through their ventures, they’ve been able to transform how enterprises (including fortune 500 companies), connect with clients.

• Salesforce crafted one of the best sales presentation examples because they were able to simplify the sale and help prospects further down the sales journey
• They also broke down the complex processes involved in simpler formats using visual diagrams and flowcharts
• By incorporating images and text overlay slides, Salesforce made a point of ensuring that you have a better understanding of what their services were all about

Microsoft’s subscription-based productivity suite is great for collaboration in the workplace. We’ve listed them out as one of the best sales presentation examples because they came up with a comprehensive layout that really spoke to the masses.

• The color scheme employed was in line with their productivity apps. By doing so, the designers sought to maintain synergy with the move acting as a clear show of consistency all around.
• The images used on every screen is a pointer to the fact that they have a dedicated team that aims to foster collaboration at the workplace. Commendably, the text sections also have a bright, vivid block of color to ensure clarity. This is a fantastic strategy since colors allow audiences to dart their eyes across the screen and focus on what really important

This end-to-end product management software comes in handy in supporting the product journey. If you’re a product manager, you’re surely going to love having it as a go-to tool since you have the power to convert great ideas into great products.

• The minimalist concept behind this approach makes it one of the most exemplary sales presentation examples
• The content layout is also super-duper. As you read through the informal tone, you get an impression that you’re actually conversing with a friend over coffee than actually sitting through a meeting getting pitched on why you should adopt a product
• The short sentences are also super engaging and the text in parenthesis gives you the impression that you’re actually getting the scoop on a trade secret

This fantastic platform was built with the sole intent of making the workplace a happy place to operate in. With Immediately, you get the opportunity to focus on the tasks that really interest you.

• By making use of stock photos and callout bubbles, Immediately perfectly illustrates various audiences’ pain points and helps create a sense of relatability
• There’s great personalization involved throughout the slides which helps the brand connect with various audiences. As a salesperson, you can borrow a leaf from this approach and embrace it to drive home the essence of your product.

Zuora is an enterprise software company does a great job of providing bespoke subscription-based services.

Through its ventures, the company has been able to produce one of the standout sales presentation examples. Here’s why we think they are definitely winning:

• Their presentation largely constitutes images and minimal text with thought-provoking facts
• The backgrounds are laden with images. This is a masterstroke since it helps personalize and distinguish the brand from the competition.
• The wordplay is excellent and the imagery used gives you a contemporary feel about things. This is perfectly in line with their brand message of how important it is to adapt to the times. If you think that they can help you position yourself in the market, then, you need not look further!

This online applicant sourcing and tracking software enables organizations to discover top talent by gathering implicit data from a large pool.

• Great graphical layout and use of white space to represent numbers. The colors incorporated are quite brilliant and go a long way in telling the narrative.
• The bulleted points have greatly help compartmentalize detailed content. You can implement this same approach if you’re looking to ensure that your audience follows the message.
• Compelling imagery is used to convey their brand message and compel prospects to take up their services

So there you have it. We’ve highlighted nine of the top sales presentation examples to get your creative juices flowing.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to convert more prospects into paying customers !

Do you think there are some sales presentation examples we’ve missed?

Which ones do you fancy?

Let us know in the comments section below!

Jack is known for leading the charge in sales innovation. He has a proven track record of working with top organizations to help them integrate social into their traditional sales process.

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Sales Process: A Step-by-Step Guide With PowerPoint Templates

The term ‘sales process’ may invite several astonished cries from a company that is habitual of selling every product in an informal fashion. And there’s no need to blame these go-getters as well. After all, managing sales demands you to be on your toes at all times. With their ears (and fishnets) at the ready, salespeople have to be on a flight mode to grab every opportunity there is.

But there’s a catch when it comes to how sales materialize today.

You see, today’s consumers are way more skeptical and way more informed than they were at the time when dishwashers had just rolled out. Thanks to the constant deluge of information readily available on mobile devices, convincing customers to buy a product needs more than just a chance email or a cold call.

So what’s the way out of this randomness and guesswork?

It’s time for you to have a formalized sales process for your company. This blog will shed light on why structure beats uncertainty every time while offering you handy PowerPoint templates for each step of your sales process. Also in tow are actionable tips that can help you become a sales whiz. Read on!

What is a sales process?

A sales process is a specialized iterative process that enables a sales representative to convert a potential buyer into a paying customer. It is the customer’s journey from a prospect to a closed deal with your business. A formalized sales process is the standard playbook for every sales rep in the company.

Not to be confused with sales funnel, which is a graphical representation of each customer interaction along the sales pipeline, a sales process is the roadmap that reps need to follow to strike a deal. In other words, a sales funnel is from the customer’s viewpoint, while a sales process is from the sales rep’s viewpoint.

But why have a sales process?

In any company, the very foundation is the sole revenue-generating activity – a sale. But even if the company’s sales managers had just winged it while closing the first deal, the generations of sales reps ahead have their seniors to look up to and learn from. In such a situation, it will not be feasible for a sales manager to teach the tricks of the trade to each newbie as efficiently as desired by the company.

Moreover, learning the ropes without definitive guidelines can lead to a lot of back and forth and time consumption. Besides, guesswork will stall closure rates for those who are not “born with a selling instinct”. Therefore, having a standardized sales process can help keep your sales activities in order besides boosting revenue.

Related read: Top 10 Sales and Operations Planning Templates to Cope With Market Volatility

Don’t take our word for it. Even top industry-specific research says so too!

Take a study by Harvard Business Review, for instance. It says that B2B companies with a well-accounted sales process can witness 28% more revenue than the companies that don't have one.

Another study by the institute indicates that close to half of the high-performing companies have a structured and automated sales process. In contrast, close to half of the under-performing companies had no sales process or were taking the informal selling approach.

These figures indicate that companies would do better to adopt a full-fledged sales process that serves as the blueprint for unlocking growth. Each study gives us an insight into how a well-structured sales process helps enhance revenue and performance. Therefore, establishing a formalized sales process is the hallmark of a business looking to become a customer favorite.

Before, we tour the PPT Templates, are you looking for a comprehensive module to train your sales team and improve their performance? Access our Sales Training Curriculum with content-ready, well-researched slides that will make your training program a terrific success!

Click Here to Download our Comprehensive Curriculum for Sales Training

Steps involved in a sales process

Charting out a comprehensive sales process can be tricky. The reason for that is the uphill climb while figuring out how to map a customer’s buying decisions with your sales process. But if you get your basics right, you can leverage a standardized sales process for all your selling endeavors. Basically, a sales process constitutes seven key steps as depicted below.

Let’s discuss these steps and explore the related PowerPoint templates that you can download and deploy to craft an unbeatable sales process. Each of these PowerPoint templates is designed by experts and researched by industry stalwarts. The formats are fully editable, so feel free to tweak these for maximum output.

1. Prospect

Prospecting kicks off a sales process roadmap as the most crucial part of it. By definition, prospecting involves identifying and research potential clients that will be interested in your product. Additionally, it constitutes a lot of market research and setting qualifying parameters for the prospective buyer.

You can also reach this prospective buyer by asking your existing clientele about their peers. The result is you have a set of leads that fulfill the criteria as per your unique value proposition (UVP). To start smart, here are the templates that will enable seamless prospecting on your end.

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2. Approach

Once you lock your target, it’s time to make contact. The next step of the sales process involves establishing a connection with the qualified lead via engaging techniques like emails, cold calls, or other digital or print forms of communication. The plan here is to grab some eyeballs by gathering info on what keeps the prospective buyer up at night.

The approach step paves the way for a communication channel between you and your buyers. It also includes generating the lead’s interest in your product by engaging them with your product UVP. Since this is where a sales rep needs to step up their convincing game, the sales process must clearly define the medium to engage the buyer the most. The following PowerPoint templates will help you ace the game every time.

3. Interview

Get down to business. Ask all the right questions. Get to know what keeps the prospect fidgeting for a solution. In the sales interview, the sales rep strikes a conversation that helps them know the prospect better. These right questions come from proper research and brainstorming about the client beforehand.

The interview phase is also a good opportunity for the sales rep to impress the potential buyer with knowledge of their issues. Thus, you can assemble all the crucial info and use it in the following PowerPoint templates.

4. Proposal

The exercise to gather info specific to the customer’s issues gives you the roadmap to a closed deal. In the proposal step of your sales process, you will pitch your product or service as the tailored solution to the customer’s problem. With the pain points in mind, you need to prepare visuals and gather testimonials to support your proposal.

At this point, you are giving the buyer a chance to consider and research your company. So make sure you hit the nail on the head with a spectacular proposal. The following PowerPoint templates will let flexible design be your greatest weapon.

5. Demonstration

It’s time to walk the talk. Once you have had a preliminary discussion with the client and proposed your product or service, you have to demonstrate the customer’s problem getting solved. Your task is to schedule the demonstration and make arrangements as suited to the client.

During the demonstration, you have to hit the critical points while showcasing the advantages that the client will get once they associate with you. A good demonstration also focuses on the unique selling point of the product, which helps make the prospective client an informed choice. The following PowerPoint templates are your best companions for a demonstration.

6. Negotiate

Unless your product or service is one of a kind, you can stay assured that the prospect will be researching for alternatives at this point. Even your product demo at some point may not be able to answer all of their questions. Nevertheless, the client is in the deciding mode and will submit their objections and queries for a precisely tailored product or service.

As a sales rep, your job is to tackle each query at the negotiation step to allow further modifications in the product. The more precise is the solution, the better are the chances of closing the deal. The negotiation phase also gives you a chance to prepare your list of objection resolutions for the future. Download and utilize these PowerPoint templates for liaising the best deal.

Once the negotiations lead to an agreement and contracts are finalized, the prospect makes a purchase, or, in sales vocabulary, the “deal is closed”. After that, the next step of the sales process is support, wherein you tackle all the issues, if any, that the client reports about the product or service. The support phase can also include extensive onboarding and follow-ups to ensure that you are off to a good start.

Support is a crucial part of a sales process as it opens avenues of repeat sales and upsells. Moreover, you can nurture your professional bond with the client and then ask for referrals to grow your client base. The following PowerPoint templates will make sales follow-up a breeze.

Effective tips for leveraging your sales process for faster deals

Whether you have put a solid workable sales process in place already or are working your way towards one, what doesn’t change is the salespeople’s flexibility. While learning and adapting to the changing course of a consumer’s journey, sales reps are responsible for listening and responding at every step of the way.

Therefore, sales representatives need to follow a proactive approach towards each of the seven steps of sales process to close deals. Here are some handy tips that you can use to exceed expectations.

1. Talk to the reps first

Before you devise your sales process, sit down with your team and get to know their sales tactics. How do they approach a prospect that moves them forward in the sales process? What do they do that leads to a sure-shot closed deal? Asking these questions will give you an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of your sales operations. Once you have gathered this knowledge, you can start describing your sales process.

2. Don’t give creativity a go-by

Following a structured approach does not trump creativity. In fact, it acts as the framework to accomplish lucrative deals the right way. This also includes using your gut instinct and creative flair to pose the right queries. Ultimately, selling will depend on how you use your skill and talent to draft your sales communication.

3. Have your customer in mind

Often sales managers think that a sales process is a to-do list for the sales reps. But they couldn’t be more wrong! What works while drafting a sales process is starting from the end result and then working your way to your company. The result here is the purchase decision made by the customer and what you do to make that happen. To ensure that the result is beyond promising, you must define your USP by being in the customer’s shoes. The bottom line is to show how your product or service will enable the customer to be in a better position.

4. Don’t rush it; build a connection

Modern-day consumers anticipate a special treatment of their problems instead of being another number in the sales analytics dashboards. Therefore, sales reps mustn’t rush the customer down the sales process and build a trustworthy relationship instead. Also, sales reps should ideate methods to offer value and a fruitful experience to the prospects. If the customers feel heard, they will be drawn towards your business.

5. Follow-ups are a must

Sure, a closed deal has its charm. But more often than not, sales reps tend to just log the numbers into a software and call it a day. They do not realize that follow-ups are their key to grow those numbers. Right from the point when the deal is closed, sales reps should maintain a balance of communication and assistance with the customer to develop a cordial relationship. This is why a formalized sales process matters as it serves as a key reminder for the sales team.

6. Reinvent your sales process

A well-structured sales process enables better sales forecasting and lead generation. However, over time, your sales team can acquire enough data on how well the sales process performs.

Related read: Top 30 Sales Metrics Templates to Effectively Monitor Your Revenue Streams

Therefore, you should use sales data to reinvent your sales process for better performance. This is possible via consistent feedback loops from the seller as well as the buyer. As you fine-tune the sales process to the highest standard of output, you can use the revised sales process to train your reps better and close more deals.

A sales process is the ultimate tool for any sales manager. It helps them distribute leads, prioritize tasks, and forecast sales figures accurately. Additionally, it helps sales newbies navigate the ups and downs of the sales cycle effortlessly while avoiding mistakes. The overall impact of a sales process generates spectacular revenue while conditioning your business process to thrive. Our sales process templates will definitely be the icing on the cake. So what are you waiting for? Incorporate a sales process into your business today and reap the benefits of a structure that succeeds.

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13 best sales methodologies and how to implement them

Posted December 14, 2023

What exactly is a sales methodology?

4 reasons to adopt a sales methodology, the 13 best sales methodologies explained, implementing a sales methodology at your company, start leveraging sales methodologies to close more deals, stay up-to-date with all things outreach.

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Businesses that want to drive increased revenue year after year need to carefully optimize each part of their sales pipeline. But a sales process that delivers results for one organization can easily fail to make an impact with another. Organizations cater to distinct markets and offer unique value propositions. That’s why companies must carefully select the sales methodology that best fits their target audience.

Of course, choosing the sales methodology that best suits your organization comes with its share of challenges. The journey from selection to adoption is rife with potential pitfalls, from misalignment with organizational objectives to resistance among the sales team. Let’s take a look at what adopting a sales methodology entails before reviewing 13 of the top sales methodologies used today.

A sales methodology is the guiding set of principles that shape and direct the actions of your sales team. It provides a blueprint for how your sales personnel should think about selling and the guidelines they should follow in their interactions with prospects. A sales methodology fosters consistency in how sales professionals identify, engage, and close deals with potential customers.

Sales methodologies are often tailored to address specific phases of the sales process , recognizing that different strategies may be required for prospecting, lead qualification, and closing. Organizations should adopt methodologies that best fit the stages of the sales pipeline they’ve prioritized and align with their most important key performance indicators (KPIs).

How to use your sales methodology to boost win rates in Outreach

With changing buyer behaviors, increasingly complex buying groups, and tightening budgets, sellers need the right tools to stay aligned with their buyers and move deals forward. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn:

• How sales leaders use Outreach to operationalize qualification methodologies like MEDDPICC , MEDDIC , BANT , or SPIN
• How top-performing AEs use mutual action plans to align with all stakeholders all the way to close
• How to use mutual action plans to avoid deal-killing scenarios

Adopting a sales methodology can deliver a range of benefits for your business:

• Onboarding and performance. A well-defined sales methodology is an invaluable tool when onboarding new sales hires. It helps newcomers grasp the organization's sales philosophy and start making tangible contributions more quickly. Accelerating the integration of new team members contributes to a more efficient and productive sales force.
• Fostering consistency. A sales methodology provides a unified framework and shared principles, ensuring that each sales professional takes a cohesive approach to every sales task.
• Scalability. As your business grows, a standardized sales methodology makes it easier to replicate successful strategies, ensuring that expansion doesn't impact sales performance.
• Lead retention guidance. A sales methodology helps sales professionals understand the nuances of how to retain leads at each stage of the sales pipeline , enhancing conversion rates.

There’s no shortage of sales methodologies to choose from, which makes carefully evaluating these frameworks all the more important. Most sales methodologies share some foundational principles, like a quality-centric approach to lead generation and a focus on building deep relationships over accumulating leads in bulk. But businesses should still assess each methodology for alignment with their organizational goals, ease of adoption, and proven success in similar industries.

1. SPIN selling

Each element of SPIN selling — situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff — corresponds to a crucial part of the sales process, providing a structured approach to understanding and addressing customer needs. SPIN selling recognizes that understanding the customer's situation, identifying problems, realizing the implications, and presenting a need-payoff solution are pivotal in effective selling. It emphasizes questioning and information-gathering across all four of these stages:

• Situation questions. Uncover the customer's current state or circumstances.
• Problem questions. Identify challenges or issues the customer may be facing.
• Implication questions. Explore the consequences or impact of the identified problems.
• Need-payoff questions. Present the solution in a way that highlights its benefits and addresses customer issues.

By focusing on the buyer's perspective, sales professionals can tailor their solutions to address specific pain points, resulting in more meaningful and effective interactions.

When adopting SPIN selling, customize your questions based on the unique needs of each potential customer, and pay close attention to their responses to gain a full understanding of the prospect’s needs. For instance, in a software sales scenario, a SPIN approach might involve understanding the client's current offerings (situation) and then uncovering issues or limitations with them (problem). The sales rep would then discuss the potential consequences of these issues (implication), and finally, proposing a solution with clear benefits (need-payoff).

2. N.E.A.T. selling

N.E.A.T. stands for need, economic impact, access to authority, and timeline. N.E.A.T. selling has roots in several notable predecessors, including BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline), ANUM (authority, need, urgency, money), and AN (authority, need). These earlier methodologies laid the groundwork for N.E.A.T., emphasizing the importance of understanding budget constraints, identifying decision-makers, assessing needs, and gauging urgency.

Each component of N.E.A.T. contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the prospect's situation and the factors influencing their purchasing decision:

• Need. Understand the prospect's needs and pain points.
• Economic impact. Assess the financial implications and benefits of the proposed solution.
• Access to authority. Identify and establish communication with decision-makers.
• Timeline. Determine the prospect's urgency and the timeframe for making a decision.

N.E.A.T. selling focuses on the latter portion of the sales process, especially the qualification and closing phases. As the sales cycle progresses , honing in on specific elements like economic impact and access to decision-makers becomes critical for successfully closing deals. By delving into economic considerations and ensuring access to decision-makers, sales professionals using N.E.A.T. can align their offerings with the prospect's specific needs and constraints, facilitating a smoother path to a deal.

3. SNAP selling

The four key aspects of SNAP selling — simple, invaluable, aligned, and priority — reflect its focus on the initial phases of prospecting and engagement. These four fundamentals recognize that simplicity and clarity in communication are vital in capturing the prospect's attention and interest from the outset:

• Simple. Prioritize simplicity in your communication and offerings to avoid overwhelming the prospect.
• iNvaluable. Ensure that your solution brings undeniable value to the prospect's specific needs.
• Aligned. Align your pitch and offerings with the prospect's unique challenges and objectives.
• Priority. Emphasize the urgency and priority of your solution in addressing the prospect's pain points.

By keeping communications straightforward and aligning offerings with customer priorities, SNAP enables sales professionals to build trust swiftly and establish a foundation for meaningful relationships.

MEDDIC is a six-part methodology that leverages quantitative standards and other key factors that influence the decision-making process in complex B2B sales scenarios. MEDDIC focuses on the qualification and closing stages of the pipeline, with all six factors placing a strong emphasis on decision-making criteria that drive the prospect's purchasing decisions:

• Metrics. Identify and comprehend the KPIs that matter to the prospect's business.
• Economic buyer. Identify the individual with the financial authority and responsibility for the purchasing decision.
• Decision criteria. Understand the specific criteria that the prospect uses to make decisions.
• Decision process. Map out the steps and stages involved in the prospect's decision-making process.
• Identify pain. Uncover and comprehend the prospect's pain points and challenges.
• Champion. Cultivate a strong advocate within the prospect's organization.

MEDDIC's close attention to quantitative standards is one of its biggest advantages. It fosters  a deep and tangible understanding of important metrics, economic considerations, and other decision-making factors. This provides a robust framework that helps sales professionals align their offerings with a prospect's business objectives.

5. Challenger selling

Challenger selling revolves around a persona for sales professionals called, appropriately, the "challenger." Sales reps that follow this approach adopt a proactive and assertive style. They present themselves as educators and thought leaders rather than simply responding to customer needs. And they aren’t afraid to actively challenge their clients' thinking when necessary. Challengers purposefully introduce constructive tension into the sales conversation, bringing new perspectives to bear and prompting the prospect to reevaluate their current approach.

Challenger selling can be used across all stages of the sales process, but it particularly shines during early sales phases involving customer engagement and education. These early stages are more apt to involve challenging the prospect's preconceptions, providing new insights, and ultimately shaping their understanding of their own needs.

When implemented well, challenger selling helps sales personnel establish themselves as trusted advisors, fostering a deeper connection with prospects. This requires investing time in thoroughly understanding the prospect's industry, challenges, and potential opportunities. It also relies on Introducing challenges and insights in a constructive manner, aiming for collaborative problem-solving rather than engaging in confrontations with a potential customer.

6. Inbound selling

As the name implies, inbound selling is closely connected with the principles of inbound marketing. Both methodologies share the philosophy of attracting, engaging, and delighting prospects by providing valuable content and personalized experiences. Inbound selling dovetails with a broader inbound marketing strategy, ensuring a seamless transition from attracting leads to converting them into customers.

Inbound selling also incorporates inbound marketing’s concept of the flywheel, envisioning the sales process as a continuous cycle that relies on continuous momentum and delighting customers at every stage of their journey. Inbound selling seeks to keep the flywheel spinning smoothly through positive customer interactions and nurturing relationships beyond the point of sale.

Inbound selling relies on collaboration between marketing and sales personnel — otherwise known as sales enablement . Marketing professionals should provide the sales team with the necessary resources and insights to engage effectively at each stage of the buyer's journey. This empowers sales professionals to act as knowledgeable representatives of your organization and helps them build credibility with prospects.

7. Customer-centric selling

Customer-centric selling is a multifaceted methodology focused on understanding, addressing, and exceeding the expectations of the customer throughout the entire sales cycle — and beyond. Each of its 8 key points revolve around establishing and fostering long-term, productive relationships with prospects:

• Understanding customer needs. Customer-centric selling prioritizes thorough research into prospects and active listening to identify pain points and aspirations, ensuring that every sales interaction is tailored to address specific customer requirements.
• Building trust and credibility. Customer-centric selling emphasizes transparency, reliability, and consistent communication to foster a trusting relationship between the sales professional and the potential customer.
• Effective communication. Clear and effective communication is a hallmark of customer-centric selling. Sales professionals are encouraged to articulate value propositions to align with customer goals, fostering a mutual understanding of the benefits the organization’s offerings provide.
• Customization of solutions. Customer-centric selling steers away from one-size-fits-all approaches. Instead, it encourages sales professionals to tailor solutions based on the needs and preferences of each prospect, demonstrating a commitment to delivering genuine value.
• Collaborative problem-solving. Customer-centric selling promotes a collaborative approach to problem-solving. Sales professionals work closely with customers to understand challenges and create solutions, developing a sense of partnership and shared objectives.
• Focus on long-term relationships. Beyond individual transactions, customer-centric selling places a strong emphasis on cultivating long-term relationships. Sales efforts are geared towards becoming a trusted advisor, providing continued support and value throughout the customer's journey.
• Continuous feedback loop. Regularly seeking and incorporating customer feedback helps sales strategies remain adaptive and responsive to evolving customer needs and market dynamics.
• Customer success integration. Customer-centric selling extends beyond the initial sale to include a seamless integration with customer success initiatives. This ensures that customers derive more value from their purchase and also experience ongoing support and satisfaction.

8. Conceptual selling

Conceptual selling evolved as a response to transactional approaches to sales, emphasizing a deeper understanding of the client's needs and the need for a consultative approach to effectively address them. Conceptual selling generally focuses on the early stages of the sales process, helping to understand and shape the potential client's concept of the solution your organization is offering. The strength of Conceptual Selling lies in its ability to create a shared vision with the prospect, resulting in a more targeted and effective sales strategy.

To get the most out of this strategy, customize presentations to resonate with the prospect’s unique perspective, and proactively address objections by aligning responses with the client's concept. Conceptual selling involves not just showcasing the features and benefits of your offering but understanding how the prospect conceptualizes the software's role in addressing their business challenges. The sales professional then tailors their presentation to highlight specific functionalities that directly align with that conceptualization, ultimately leading to a more impactful sales pitch.

9. Target account selling

Target account selling (TAS) streamlines the sales process by concentrating efforts on high-potential accounts. It focuses on meticulous lead qualification and targeting prospects who not only show interest in your organization’s offerings but also possess the authority to make purchasing decisions.

Target account selling helps maximize efficiency by directing resources toward high-value prospects. Rigorous evaluation of leads helps ensure a focus on accounts with the highest potential for conversion, while thorough research lets sales personnel pinpoint individuals with the authority to make purchasing decisions. Sales personnel should then establish connections with both decision-makers and other stakeholders at the targeted organization.

10. The Sandler Selling System

The Sandler Selling System was developed by David H. Sandler in the late 1960s. It diverged from existing sales approaches by introducing a more collaborative and relationship-centric methodology. The Sandler Selling System redefines the seller-buyer relationship throughout the sales cycle by emphasizing mutual evaluation, where the seller assesses the buyer's suitability for their offering as much as the buyer evaluates the seller.

The two-way evaluation process allows both the seller and buyer to determine if the partnership is a fit. The system promotes a no-pressure approach, focusing on open communication and collaboration rather than traditional hard-selling tactics. This helps build a foundation of trust and collaboration early in the sales process, leading to more genuine and sustainable partnerships.

11. Solution selling

Solution selling , created by Frank Watts and refined by Michael Bosworth, reorients the sales process by adopting a solution-first approach. It shifts the focus from products to tailored solutions that directly address the prospect's challenges and objectives. This enhanced customization fosters a deeper connection with prospects and increases the likelihood of closing deals.

Solution selling requires a close examination of the prospect's needs and pain points and benefits from a consultative approach where the sales professional acts as a trusted advisor, guiding the prospect toward solutions that best fit their requirements. Sales personnel should engage in collaborative discussions to identify and address unique challenges faced by the prospect. Instead of promoting a pre-packaged set of products or services, sales reps adapt offerings to better resonate with the prospect.

12. Gap selling

Gap selling attempts to meet the need for a more dynamic and outcome-oriented sales strategy. It centers around understanding and communicating how a potential customer can bridge the gap from their current state to their desired future state. Gap selling requires aligning the sales process closely with the prospect's aspirations, creating a more compelling case for conversion.

The primary goal of gap selling is to effectively communicate how your organization’s offering can lead to positive outcomes for the prospect. Sales teams must be ready to develop a nuanced understanding of where the prospect is and where they want to end up. Sales personnel then position their offerings not just as a set of features but as a pathway to overcoming specific hurdles and achieving the prospect’s desired outcomes.

13. Value selling

Value selling places its primary focus on communicating the significant value and benefits that customers derive from a product or service, particularly in comparison to its price. It aligns with the broader shift towards customer-centric approaches in sales and can be effective throughout the stages of the sales cycle.

Value selling involves effectively articulating the unique value propositions and benefits of a product or service. It emphasizes communicating the return on investment (ROI) and demonstrating how your organization’s offering provides substantial value for the prospect. It requires aligning pricing strategies with the perceived value customers receive thoroughly understanding customer needs to tailor value propositions effectively. The sales professional should quantify benefits to the extent possible, like time and cost savings, efficiency gains, and potential revenue increases.

When evaluating and implementing a sales methodology at your company, there are a few strategies you should follow to get the best results.

Determining sales team needs

Before selecting a sales methodology, work to understand the needs of your sales team at every stage of the pipeline. Gather and analyze data at each stage of the sales pipeline to gain a clear understanding of what's working and what isn't. You should also communicate with stakeholders in and out of the sales department to get a full picture of your organization’s current capabilities. This will better equip you to choose and fine-tune a sales methodology that aligns with your sales team’s strengths and helps address their weaknesses.

Methodology selection and alignment

Once armed with data, select methodologies that focus on identified performance gaps while keeping in mind your team’s capacity for change. Consider a mix of methodologies if it best aligns with your team's diverse challenges. It's crucial to balance innovation with preserving effective current processes. Align the chosen methodologies with your team's existing workflow to the extent possible to facilitate a smoother transition.

Communication and ongoing support

Clearly communicate the rationale behind adopting the selected methodologies to your sales team. Provide a transparent accounting of how the new approach aligns with organizational goals and will benefit both the team and individual sales professionals. Continuous support and training are vital to ensuring a successful transition. Holding regular check-ins, establishing feedback loops, and ensuring supportive resources are accessible all help maintain positive momentum and address any issues that may arise.

Choosing the right sales platform

Throughout this process, leverage a robust sales platform to streamline and enhance your efforts. Sales platforms provide tools for data analysis, process automation, ongoing training and support, and performance tracking, aiding in the quick implementation of new methodologies. Look for software that offers customization, integrates with your team’s existing tools, and can scale to accommodate evolving needs.

Even the best sales methodology is likely to fall short of expectations without the right tech to back it up. Outreach is a leading sales execution platform that provides all the capabilities needed to effectively implement the ideal sales methodology for your business.

Outreach is designed to empower sales teams at every stage of the sales process by streamlining workflows, maximizing customer engagement, enhancing collaboration, and providing valuable insights to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales efforts. Request a demo today to see how Outreach can elevate your sales methodology and help you close more deals.

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MoSCoW Prioritization

What is moscow prioritization.

MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements. 

  The acronym MoSCoW represents four categories of initiatives: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have, or will not have right now. Some companies also use the “W” in MoSCoW to mean “wish.”

What is the History of the MoSCoW Method?

Software development expert Dai Clegg created the MoSCoW method while working at Oracle. He designed the framework to help his team prioritize tasks during development work on product releases.

You can find a detailed account of using MoSCoW prioritization in the Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) handbook . But because MoSCoW can prioritize tasks within any time-boxed project, teams have adapted the method for a broad range of uses.

How Does MoSCoW Prioritization Work?

Before running a MoSCoW analysis, a few things need to happen. First, key stakeholders and the product team need to get aligned on objectives and prioritization factors. Then, all participants must agree on which initiatives to prioritize.

At this point, your team should also discuss how they will settle any disagreements in prioritization. If you can establish how to resolve disputes before they come up, you can help prevent those disagreements from holding up progress.

Finally, you’ll also want to reach a consensus on what percentage of resources you’d like to allocate to each category.

With the groundwork complete, you may begin determining which category is most appropriate for each initiative. But, first, let’s further break down each category in the MoSCoW method.

Start prioritizing your roadmap

Moscow prioritization categories.

1. Must-have initiatives

As the name suggests, this category consists of initiatives that are “musts” for your team. They represent non-negotiable needs for the project, product, or release in question. For example, if you’re releasing a healthcare application, a must-have initiative may be security functionalities that help maintain compliance.

The “must-have” category requires the team to complete a mandatory task. If you’re unsure about whether something belongs in this category, ask yourself the following.

If the product won’t work without an initiative, or the release becomes useless without it, the initiative is most likely a “must-have.”

2. Should-have initiatives

Should-have initiatives are just a step below must-haves. They are essential to the product, project, or release, but they are not vital. If left out, the product or project still functions. However, the initiatives may add significant value.

“Should-have” initiatives are different from “must-have” initiatives in that they can get scheduled for a future release without impacting the current one. For example, performance improvements, minor bug fixes, or new functionality may be “should-have” initiatives. Without them, the product still works.

3. Could-have initiatives

Another way of describing “could-have” initiatives is nice-to-haves. “Could-have” initiatives are not necessary to the core function of the product. However, compared with “should-have” initiatives, they have a much smaller impact on the outcome if left out.

So, initiatives placed in the “could-have” category are often the first to be deprioritized if a project in the “should-have” or “must-have” category ends up larger than expected.

4. Will not have (this time)

One benefit of the MoSCoW method is that it places several initiatives in the “will-not-have” category. The category can manage expectations about what the team will not include in a specific release (or another timeframe you’re prioritizing).

Placing initiatives in the “will-not-have” category is one way to help prevent scope creep . If initiatives are in this category, the team knows they are not a priority for this specific time frame. 

Some initiatives in the “will-not-have” group will be prioritized in the future, while others are not likely to happen. Some teams decide to differentiate between those by creating a subcategory within this group.

How Can Development Teams Use MoSCoW?

  Although Dai Clegg developed the approach to help prioritize tasks around his team’s limited time, the MoSCoW method also works when a development team faces limitations other than time. For example: 

Prioritize based on budgetary constraints.

What if a development team’s limiting factor is not a deadline but a tight budget imposed by the company? Working with the product managers, the team can use MoSCoW first to decide on the initiatives that represent must-haves and the should-haves. Then, using the development department’s budget as the guide, the team can figure out which items they can complete. 

Prioritize based on the team’s skillsets.

A cross-functional product team might also find itself constrained by the experience and expertise of its developers. If the product roadmap calls for functionality the team does not have the skills to build, this limiting factor will play into scoring those items in their MoSCoW analysis.

Prioritize based on competing needs at the company.

Cross-functional teams can also find themselves constrained by other company priorities. The team wants to make progress on a new product release, but the executive staff has created tight deadlines for further releases in the same timeframe. In this case, the team can use MoSCoW to determine which aspects of their desired release represent must-haves and temporarily backlog everything else.

What Are the Drawbacks of MoSCoW Prioritization?

  Although many product and development teams have prioritized MoSCoW, the approach has potential pitfalls. Here are a few examples.

1. An inconsistent scoring process can lead to tasks placed in the wrong categories.

  One common criticism against MoSCoW is that it does not include an objective methodology for ranking initiatives against each other. Your team will need to bring this methodology to your analysis. The MoSCoW approach works only to ensure that your team applies a consistent scoring system for all initiatives.

Pro tip: One proven method is weighted scoring, where your team measures each initiative on your backlog against a standard set of cost and benefit criteria. You can use the weighted scoring approach in ProductPlan’s roadmap app .

2. Not including all relevant stakeholders can lead to items placed in the wrong categories.

To know which of your team’s initiatives represent must-haves for your product and which are merely should-haves, you will need as much context as possible.

For example, you might need someone from your sales team to let you know how important (or unimportant) prospective buyers view a proposed new feature.

One pitfall of the MoSCoW method is that you could make poor decisions about where to slot each initiative unless your team receives input from all relevant stakeholders. 

3. Team bias for (or against) initiatives can undermine MoSCoW’s effectiveness.

Because MoSCoW does not include an objective scoring method, your team members can fall victim to their own opinions about certain initiatives. 

One risk of using MoSCoW prioritization is that a team can mistakenly think MoSCoW itself represents an objective way of measuring the items on their list. They discuss an initiative, agree that it is a “should have,” and move on to the next.

But your team will also need an objective and consistent framework for ranking all initiatives. That is the only way to minimize your team’s biases in favor of items or against them.

When Do You Use the MoSCoW Method for Prioritization?

MoSCoW prioritization is effective for teams that want to include representatives from the whole organization in their process. You can capture a broader perspective by involving participants from various functional departments.

Another reason you may want to use MoSCoW prioritization is it allows your team to determine how much effort goes into each category. Therefore, you can ensure you’re delivering a good variety of initiatives in each release.

What Are Best Practices for Using MoSCoW Prioritization?

If you’re considering giving MoSCoW prioritization a try, here are a few steps to keep in mind. Incorporating these into your process will help your team gain more value from the MoSCoW method.

1. Choose an objective ranking or scoring system.

Remember, MoSCoW helps your team group items into the appropriate buckets—from must-have items down to your longer-term wish list. But MoSCoW itself doesn’t help you determine which item belongs in which category.

You will need a separate ranking methodology. You can choose from many, such as:

• Weighted scoring
• Value vs. complexity
• Buy-a-feature
• Opportunity scoring

For help finding the best scoring methodology for your team, check out ProductPlan’s article: 7 strategies to choose the best features for your product .

2. Seek input from all key stakeholders.

To make sure you’re placing each initiative into the right bucket—must-have, should-have, could-have, or won’t-have—your team needs context. 

At the beginning of your MoSCoW method, your team should consider which stakeholders can provide valuable context and insights. Sales? Customer success? The executive staff? Product managers in another area of your business? Include them in your initiative scoring process if you think they can help you see opportunities or threats your team might miss. 

3. Share your MoSCoW process across your organization.

MoSCoW gives your team a tangible way to show your organization prioritizing initiatives for your products or projects. 

The method can help you build company-wide consensus for your work, or at least help you show stakeholders why you made the decisions you did.

Communicating your team’s prioritization strategy also helps you set expectations across the business. When they see your methodology for choosing one initiative over another, stakeholders in other departments will understand that your team has thought through and weighed all decisions you’ve made. 

If any stakeholders have an issue with one of your decisions, they will understand that they can’t simply complain—they’ll need to present you with evidence to alter your course of action.  

Related Terms

2×2 prioritization matrix / Eisenhower matrix / DACI decision-making framework / ICE scoring model / RICE scoring model

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Home » Agile Development » Prioritizing Requirements with MoSCoW Method: A Guide for Agile Projects

Prioritizing Requirements with MoSCoW Method: A Guide for Agile Projects

• Posted on March 28, 2023
• / Under Agile & Scrum , Agile Development , Project Management

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in project management, software development, and business analysis. It helps to prioritize requirements based on their importance and urgency, and allows project managers to allocate resources and budget accordingly. In this article, we will explore the MoSCoW method and provide an example of its implementation.

What is the MoSCoW Method?

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique that categorizes requirements into four groups: Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won’t-haves. The acronym MoSCoW stands for:

• Must have: critical requirements that are essential for the project’s success. These requirements are mandatory and must be included in the project scope.
• Should have: important requirements that are necessary for the project’s success but can be delayed if necessary. These requirements are important, but not critical, and can be deferred to a later phase of the project.
• Could have: desirable requirements that are not essential for the project’s success, but can enhance the project’s value. These requirements are optional and can be included if time and budget allow.
• Won’t have: requirements that are not needed for the project’s success and are not included in the project scope.

The MoSCoW method helps project managers prioritize requirements based on their importance and urgency. It allows them to focus on the critical requirements and allocate resources and budget accordingly.

Example of MoSCoW Method

Let’s consider an example of a software development project to understand how the MoSCoW method works.

Suppose a company wants to develop a new mobile app for its customers. The app should allow customers to order products, track their orders, and receive notifications. The company also wants to include some additional features to make the app more appealing to customers.

The project team identifies the following requirements:

• Must have: The app must allow customers to order products, track their orders, and receive notifications.
• Should have: The app should have a search feature that allows customers to search for products, and a payment feature that allows customers to pay for their orders using various payment methods.
• Could have: The app could have a loyalty program feature that rewards customers for their purchases, and a referral program feature that incentivizes customers to refer the app to their friends and family.
• Won’t have: The app won’t have a social media integration feature that allows customers to share their purchases on social media platforms.

Using the MoSCoW method, the project team has prioritized the requirements based on their importance and urgency. The must-have requirements are critical for the success of the project and must be included in the app. The should-have requirements are important, but can be deferred to a later phase of the project if necessary. The could-have requirements are optional and can be included if time and budget allow. The won’t-have requirements are not needed for the project’s success and are not included in the project scope.

Real-life Example – CRM System

Project Description: Development of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

The objective of this Agile project is to develop a CRM system for a small business that specializes in providing customized solutions to its clients. The CRM system will be designed to streamline the sales process and improve customer interactions, allowing the business to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The project will follow the Agile methodology, which involves iterative and incremental development. The Agile team will work closely with the client to gather requirements, develop prototypes, and deliver functional software increments in short iterations, typically two weeks.

Identify a List of User Stories

To create the list of user stories, you can considered the different roles that would interact with the system, such as sales representatives, managers, and customers, and thought about the various tasks they would need to perform in order to achieve their goals. you can also considered the different types of data that would need to be stored and managed within the system, such as customer information, sales data, and marketing campaigns.

Based on this analysis, you can then generated a list of user stories that covered a broad range of functionality, from lead tracking and customer service, to sales proposals and reporting. The list of user stories is intended to provide a starting point for the development team to use in prioritizing and planning the development of the CRM system.

Here is a list of user stories for the CRM system development project:

• As a sales representative, I want to be able to track all of my leads in one place so that I can easily manage my sales pipeline.
• As a sales manager, I want to be able to view and monitor my team’s progress in real-time so that I can provide coaching and support as needed.
• As a customer service representative, I want to be able to view all of a customer’s interactions with our company so that I can provide personalized support.
• As a marketing manager, I want to be able to segment our customers based on their preferences and behavior so that I can target them with relevant campaigns.
• As a customer, I want to be able to view my purchase history and account information so that I can easily manage my relationship with the company.
• As a customer service representative, I want to be able to log and track customer complaints and inquiries so that I can ensure that they are addressed in a timely manner.
• As a sales representative, I want to be able to generate quotes and proposals quickly and easily so that I can close deals faster.
• As an administrator, I want to be able to manage user permissions and access levels so that I can control who has access to sensitive information.
• As a sales representative, I want to be able to schedule and manage appointments with my clients so that I can stay organized and on top of my schedule.
• As a manager, I want to be able to generate reports on sales performance, customer satisfaction, and other metrics so that I can make informed business decisions.

These user stories cover a range of functionality that the CRM system should provide. The development team can use these user stories to prioritize the most important features for the system, and to ensure that the system meets the needs of all stakeholders.

In table format, let’s present a clear and concise summary of the 10 user stories related to a business scenario to provide an overview of the user stories.

The table provides information on the user role, the specific goal they want to achieve, and the user story number to easily reference each story. By organizing the user stories in a table, it is easier to understand and prioritize the features that need to be developed to meet the needs of the stakeholders involved in the project. This table can serve as a reference for the development team to design and implement features that align with the needs of the end-users and stakeholders.

Prioritize the User Stories

It is important to prioritize the user stories based on their business value and impact on the project goals. This ensures that the development effort is focused on the most important and valuable features, and that the project can be delivered on time and within budget.

Prioritization can be done using various techniques such as the MoSCoW method, which categorizes user stories as “must-haves,” “should-haves,” “could-haves,” and “won’t-haves.” User stories categorized as “must-haves” are the most critical and should be developed first, while “should-haves” and “could-haves” can be developed later in subsequent iterations or releases.

Here’s a table for the 10 user stories mentioned earlier, with the relevant information and prioritization based on the MoSCoW method:

In this table, the user stories are listed in order of priority, with the “must-have” features listed first, followed by the “should-haves” and “could-haves.” The “won’t-haves” feature is not planned for implementation in this project, but may be considered for future development.

By prioritizing the user stories, the development team can ensure that the most critical features are developed first, providing value to the stakeholders and enabling the project to meet its objectives within the time and budget constraints.

Example: A Scrum Development Plan for the CRM

here is a high-level outline for a Scrum development plan to start the agile project. However, the specific details of the plan will depend on the project requirements, team structure, and other factors. Here’s an example of a Scrum development plan:

• Define the Product Backlog: The first step is to define the product backlog, which is a prioritized list of all the features, functionalities, and requirements that need to be implemented in the project. This backlog will be maintained throughout the project and will be continually refined and updated based on the changing needs of the stakeholders.
• Conduct Sprint Planning: After the product backlog has been defined, the team will conduct a sprint planning meeting to select a set of user stories from the backlog to be developed in the upcoming sprint. The team will estimate the effort required for each user story, and select the user stories that can be completed within the sprint timeframe.
• Conduct Daily Scrum Meetings : Once the sprint has started, the team will conduct daily scrum meetings to review progress, identify any obstacles or challenges, and adjust the plan as needed. The daily scrum meetings should be short and focused, with each team member providing an update on their progress.
• Develop the Product Increment: During the sprint, the team will work on developing the selected user stories, focusing on delivering a working product increment by the end of the sprint. The team will collaborate closely, with developers, testers, and other team members working together to deliver the product increment.
• Conduct Sprint Review: At the end of the sprint, the team will conduct a sprint review meeting to demonstrate the product increment to the stakeholders, gather feedback, and review the progress made during the sprint.
• Conduct Sprint Retrospective: After the sprint review, the team will conduct a sprint retrospective meeting to review the sprint process, identify areas for improvement, and plan for the next sprint.
• Repeat the process: The team will repeat this process for each subsequent sprint, continuing to refine and update the product backlog, and focusing on delivering a working product increment at the end of each sprint.

This Scrum development plan provides a framework for managing the agile project, with regular meetings and reviews to ensure that the project is on track and delivering value to the stakeholders.

The article discusses the MoSCoW method, which is a prioritization technique used in Agile project management to prioritize project requirements. The MoSCoW method divides requirements into four categories: Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have. The article provides a real-life example of an Agile project and how to identify user stories for the project. The user stories are then prioritized using the MoSCoW method, with the Must-have requirements given top priority.

The article also outlines a Scrum development plan, which includes defining the product backlog, conducting sprint planning, daily scrum meetings, developing the product increment, sprint review, sprint retrospective, and repeating the process. The Scrum development plan provides a framework for managing the Agile project, ensuring that the project is on track, and delivering value to stakeholders.

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